


Until the Night Turns

by savechangbin2020



Category: Day6 (Band), ITZY (Band), Stray Kids (Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst, Chaeryeong is Chan’s sister, Chan and Namjoon are brothers, Fluff, Han Jisung | Han & Kang Younghyun | Young K are Siblings, Kim Seungmin & Kim Wonpil are Siblings, Kissing, M/M, Minsung rise, Strangers to Lovers, Werewolves, Witchcraft, Yeji and Hyunjin are siblings, Yuna is Seungmin’s sister, jisung is just here to have a good time, jungkook is minho’s brother, like way too much kissing, minho is an angsty boy, no one dies, probably, someone take away my computer, theres too many siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2020-06-02 13:07:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19442080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savechangbin2020/pseuds/savechangbin2020
Summary: Han Jisung is ripped away from everything he knows and dropped in a town in the middle of nowhere and is expect to just kind of deal with that. He isn’t sure he’s going to be happy but then he meets the best friends he’s always searched for and even falls in love.The only problem is that something is wrong with the town. Jisung doesn’t know what but people look at him like he’s strange, Chan is terrified of something he won’t talk about and Minho is keeping secrets. What aren’t they telling him?(Day6, BTS and ITZY are side characters. SKZ centric.)





	1. way out there

Welcome to Sonder Pines, a town with character and enthusiasm and the most cliche spooky small town name since Riverdale. A place where the sun shines brightly and the forest wraps around the town like a noose. A place where no one is quite sure if the people run the town or the town runs them, but no one likes to think about it too hard.

Jisung had no idea why his parents thought moving here was a good idea. It wasn’t that where they used to live was particularly special, it was the fact that they were driving hundreds of miles to an entirely different state to a town none of them had ever even heard of. His mother had gotten some kind of pamphlet or something through the door and decided that they needed to drop everything and move here.

Worst of all, he had been trapped in a car for literally ten hours and he was ready for death. He’d slept for a lot of it but even so he felt like he could cry because of how restless he felt.

  
“I’m bored!” he whined, unable to sit still for long periods of time because of how hyperactive he was.

  
“Try and not torture your brother too much, okay sweetie?” Their mother called back to him from the front of the car.  
  
Brian, the aforementioned brother sighed, rolling his eyes. “Too late.”

  
“Are we actually close though, mom?” Jisung looked hopefully at the backs of their mom and dad’s heads as he asked the question.

  
“We’re about twenty minutes out,” his dad replied, focusing on the road.

  
Jisung exhaled exasperatedly, leaning his head against the cool glass of the window.

  
When his parents had come to him and Brian two months ago and told them that they were moving, Jisung hadn’t been as upset as he probably should’ve been. He didn’t really have any friends at his old school. No one to miss him when he wasn’t there. He had high school friends and those are extremely different from actual friends. They all hung out with each other because it was convenient but no one really connected with each other, nor did they understand the concept of loyalty. Jisung had been ditched by them more times that he could count and he’d grown tired of it, so this announcement from his parents had actually been a little bit of a miracle. That didn’t mean it didn’t confuse the hell out of him.

  
  
Outside the window, Jisung could see all the pine trees blurring together as they drove past. It looked kinda spooky. The forest was dense and it didn’t seem like the daylight broke through the trees, leaving a wall of darkness surrounding their car on both sides. There wasn’t a building to be seen for miles, only an endless blanket of trees. This place was really in the middle of nowhere, wasn’t it?

  
“Why are we moving now? I don’t get it. Aren’t we just gonna be bored for like three months?” Brian asked, leaning his head against the back of the seat and closing his eyes.

  
It’s true. It was a strange time to move. It was June, so the schools were already out for Summer vacation, and Jisung was dreading the no doubt dull summer he had ahead of him.

  
“We wanted to give you some time to adjust,” their dad responded. “Let you settle in, get to know the area.”

  
“Maybe make some friends?” Their mom suggested hopefully, and Jisung could feel her eyes on him.

  
“Mom, don’t give him unrealistic ideas,” Brian teased. Jisung punched his arm in response, scowling at him.

  
“Don’t get your hopes up though,” Jisung reluctantly agreed. He had been lucky anyone at all had wanted to talk to him at his old school. He believed he annoyed everyone around him. He got way too excited and loud and had been informed by many people that it was irritating. He wasn’t expecting to make new friends here. He wasn’t sure if he even wanted them.  


A further fifteen minutes more of seemingly infinite trees passed, while Jisung tried to drown out the silent eeriness of their current surroundings by blasting Panic at the Disco through his headphones and staring into the thick grove of interweaving branches. Sometimes it looked like there was something moving in there in there but Jisung had an overactive imagination and a fear of the dark (as well as most other things) so he wasn’t surprised. It was kind of that thing where you think about something scary lurking in the dark so you start seeing it even though it’s not actually there. Besides, let’s be honest. If something lurking out there wanted to get you, it wouldn’t wait for you to notice it.

They approached and quickly drove past a rusting sign inscribed with red peeling letters that read

**_“Welcome to Sonder Pines!”_ **

_“Watch out for the trees_.”

That tagline had been sprayed on using black spray paint, signed with the initials JK, and looked to be quite a few years old now, having been faded by the rain. Jisung swallowed anxiously, looking at his brother for a reaction. Brian looked just as taken aback as he felt.

“That’s not fucking terrifying at all,” Brian muttered sarcastically, adjusting his headphones from where they’d slipped off his head.

“Language!” His mother scolded, grabbing a map out of the glove box and unfolding it.

“What the hell does that mean?” Jisung leaned over and whispered to Brian.

“Creepy ass towns have creepy ass slogans,” he shrugged nonchalantly, going back to staring out the window.

The trees began to taper off and their car began to pass houses and buildings slowly as they breached the entrance of the town itself. The satnav at the front of the car seemed to be having problems telling them where they were going and Jisung turned up his music louder to drown out his parents yelling at it. The stupid thing was so old that wherever the hell this “Sonder Pines” was wasn’t even in the database.

Let this be a note to all you kids out there. Funnily enough, and this probably sounds crazy, yelling at inanimate objects actually doesn’t make them work faster. Weird, right?

The buildings looked rundown, like the town had been frozen in time during the eighties and just never progressed from that point. Jisung’s eyes were pulled to the flickering neon sign of a 24 hour mini mart, sort of like an off brand 7-Eleven which was connected to a gas station that looked like it hadn’t been used in years, left to rust under the sun. Close by was a church with a spire that climbed into the sunny sky with a vaguely homophobic message written on the sign outside. Brian audibly scoffed and Jisung felt a wave of anxiety wash over him. So it was that kind of town.

Eventually, they pulled into a neighbourhood and came to a stop outside the house. Jisung and Brian had never actually seen the house before but it was pretty nice. Typical American suburban house. White paint on the outside, a large sloping brown roof with a wooden porch out front taking up a lot of room.

The moving truck had already arrived and the men inside had already begun unpacking boxes as Jisung finally got out of the car, stretching his limbs.

“That car compressed my bones,” he grumbled, feeling his back crack as he straightened up. “I may never recover.”

“Stop being a dipshit and help,” Brian called over, already holding a box from the back of the truck. Their mother swatted his arm lightly.

“Its been one minute. Please try not to fight unless you want to end up in one of these boxes,” she scolded and with that vague and nonsensical threat, both boys shut up and Jisung went to help and by help he of course meant run inside and claim the best bedroom before anyone else could.

  
  


****  


  
About two hours later, after all the boxes had been unloaded and the moving guys left, and after there was much bickering between the two boys about the bedroom distribution (Jisung swore he saw a ghost in the room at the far end of the upstairs hallway and would rather sell out his only sibling to a potentially evil spirit than have to suffer himself ), which was met with many many more threats of being shipped off into the middle of the ocean in a box and left to fend for themselves (Jisung’s parents could be weirdly specific with their empty threats) there was a knock on the door.

  
“Can one of you get that?” Their dad called from a room upstairs. Both Jisung and Brian were loitering in the hallway near the front door, not being of much help to anyone.

  
“Not it!” Brian threw his hand in the air, staring smugly at Jisung, who sighed.

  
“Fine,” he muttered grumpily, dragging his feet over to the door and opening it as his brother ran upstairs.

  
Outside on the porch stood a boy, probably about Jisung’s age, slightly taller though, not that it was hard. Jisung was about the height of a christmas elf if that elf happened to be the height of a 5’6” teenage boy. Basically, he was short as hell.

  
“Uh, hi?” Jisung said, attempting to sound friendly, but ended up sounding more confused than anything else.

  
“Hi, I’m Chan. I live across from you and I just wanted to say hello and welcome you to the neighborhood.” The boy, Chan apparently, had the widest smile Jisung had ever seen and held out his hand.

  
Chan was the kind of person that seemed to have friendliness coming out of his pores. He had warm brown eyes that sort of crinkled around the edges when he smiled and curly blond hair that looked golden in the sunlight. He was extremely pale and had dimples that made him look permanently happy and, most noticeably, a scar that ran from his hairline right next to his left ear all the way across his cheek to the middle of his jawline. He was very good looking but Jisung couldn’t help but wonder, as he took the hand Chan was holding out, how a boy who looked so soft got a scar that deep. He wouldn’t learn the answer to that for quite some time though and it’s rude to ask. Be patient. You’ll find out later.

  
“I’m Jisung.” He shook Chan’s and hand and the boy in front of him smiled even wider.  


“It’s nice to meet you, Jisung,” he replied, voice oozing sincerity. “Just wanted to welcome you to the neighbourhood since I think some of my friends are your age.”

“Thanks,” Jisung replied, albeit slightly awkwardly. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say to make a good first impression. He actually couldn’t think of a single time in his life where he made a good first impression. He wouldn’t be surprised at all if the second he was born, the nurses had all immediately found him annoying.

“Hey, if you’re not too busy, I can show you around,” Chan offered. “It’s bigger than it looks around here, trust me.”

“Sweetie, who is it?“ Jisung heard his mother call, her footsteps coming down the stairs.

“One of the neighbours,” he called back. She appeared from the staircase, a friendly smile on her face as she approached the door.

“It’s nice to meet you,” She said warmly, putting her hands on Jisung’s shoulders. “I’m Jisung’s mom.”

“It’s lovely to meet you. My name is Chan and I live in the house right across from you,” Chan replied with effortless charm. “I just wanted to come over and say hi and offer to show Jisung around since we’re around the same age, if he’s not too busy that is.”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea!” His mother said cheerfully, already in the process of shoving her youngest child out the door.

“Mom!“ he protested, nearly tripping over the door frame as she literally pushed him.

“Come on, sweetie, it’s not as if you’re actually helping here, plus god only knows you need friends,“ she said to him, causing Chan to laugh a little.

“Oh my god.” Jisung really wanted to die then and there. It had been only a few hours and he’d already been embarrassed in front of a total stranger by his mother’s painfully true statements. The truth really did hurt.

“Hey Brian!” She yelled over her shoulder. The loud thumping of boxes falling over could be heard from upstairs followed by a string of curses. “Get your ass down here.”

“What?” He yelled as he ran down the stairs, freezing when he saw the open door.

“This is Chan. You’re going with him so he can show you around and you can stop getting on my nerves,” she told him. “Don’t mess this up or I’ll give you both up for adoption and adopt him instead. We need to impress the neighbors.”

“Uh, okay then?” Was his confused response as she ushered both of them out the door quickly, slamming it behind them.  


“She seems great,” Chan decided. Jisung and Brian looked at each other, not exactly sure what just happened. “Nice to meet you, Brian.“

“Nice to meet you too? What just happened?” He asked, staring at the closed door.

“Better to not question it,” Jisung told him, patting his shoulder as he walked past, the gravel that covered the driveway crunching under his feet.

“So where are you guys from?” Chan asked as they began walking.

“Moved here from California,” Brian answered, eyeing Chan suspiciously, what with him being, you know, a complete and utter stranger and all. Their mom had really just sent them off with a random person and if any kidnapping was to take place, Brian was abandoning his brother. It’s fine. No one needs two kids, plus he was born first.

  


“Woah, that far?” Chan asked, looking genuinely surprised. “Probably kinda weird being somewhere like this then.”

  


“You can say that again,” Jisung muttered under his breath. He had no idea what the fuck was going on but now he was following a guy he didn’t know into a town he also didn’t know. What a good first day. If he was murdered by serial killers, he was blaming his mom.

  


“This is probably a lot to deal with and I’m sorry about being so forward, but I want you guys to feel welcome here,” Chan admitted, flashing them that warm smile yet again. “Just stick with me and I’ll help you out.”

  


Weirdly, with a strong emphasis on weirdly, Jisung didn’t mind Chan’s forwardness. It had surprised him, but he’d never met someone quite like him before and he seemed nice. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad here. Only time would tell.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. collar full of chemistry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’m naming each chapter after a song I think fits the fic.
> 
> This chapter: Collar Full by Panic! At the Disco. 
> 
> This song slaps so like,,,, check it out if you don’t know it.
> 
> (The previous chapter was Way Out There by Lord Huron. That band doesn’t have a bad song I swear.

  
  
  


  
Jisung quickly realised that getting along with Chan was absurdly easy. He was so easy to talk to and after only about thirty minutes of talking, Jisung felt like he’d known him for ages. He just had this aura about him that was incredibly comforting, and he’d settled the nerves Jisung had about not knowing anyone even by just a little.  
  
He’d learned Chan was a year older than him, so he was starting Senior year which was the same year Brian was going into, whereas Jisung was beginning his junior year. They also shared a passion for music, and rapping in particular. Jisung had grown up making music with his brother, so it was cool that the first person he met liked the same things. He also had a little sister called Chaeryeong and a step-brother called Namjoon and he was on the football team at school.

Chan also helped them out with figuring out where everything was; the school they’d be attending in fall was, the homophobic churches, the not homophobic churches (why do small towns always have so many churches?), the lake that was right in the centre of town, the few shops, where all the shady people hung out, etc.  


“So down there is the old side of town,” Chan explained, pointing down a random side street. It seemed sort of overgrown at the end, no houses unlike all the neat little culdesacs they’d passed. There appeared to be a number of abandoned buildings covered in moss and grass but Jisung couldn’t get a good enough look. “No one really goes there anymore and it can be kinda dangerous sometimes so I’d just avoid it if I were you.”

“Dangerous?” Jisung looked at Chan in concern.

“Oh don’t worry, it’s mostly just drugs and stuff, you know? Just figured I should warn you. It’s not really seen as part of the actual town anymore.” Chan assured him. “Just don’t go down there.”

Jisung didn’t take that too seriously. Drugs had been part of the reason why he hadn’t liked his old friends much. He was never one to cave into peer pressure, but he had always felt so out of place whenever they wanted to hang out and smoke god knows what.

“So you’re not into all that stuff then?” Jisung asked. Chan immediately shook his head.

“Nah, not at all,” Chan told him with a smile. “What about either of you?”

“Definitely not,” Brian replied.

  
“That’s good,” Chan said, a little relieved. “People will respond to you more positively if you don’t cause any trouble. Okay so down here is like where all the main shops and cafes and bars are-“

“Wait, what do you mean?” Jisung asked, stopping in the middle of the street next to a road that led down into what looked like the center of town.

“Oh, just that sometimes people in places like this are kinda weird when it comes to new people,” Chan explained. “That’s why I came over to say hi. I wanted you both to know that not everyone is like that.”

Jisung was literally about five seconds away from falling in love with this guy, holy shit. Who was just naturally this nice?

“Wow, thanks.” Brian sounded as surprised as Jisung felt.

“Don’t mention it. Just don’t be too disheartened if some people are sort of standoffish,” Chan said. “It probably won’t be many people. Oh and one more thing…”

  
Chan’s entire demeanour changed. He sort of became a little shifty and started looking around him.  
  
“Don’t go outside at night by yourself,” he told them, voice suddenly dropping to nearly a whisper.  
  
That really struck Jisung as odd and unsettling along with the way Chan started looking around like someone was watching and he wasn’t allowed to talk. He exchanged an alarmed look with his brother.

“What does _that_ mean?” He asked, but Chan shook his head.

“Not here. I’ll tell you later,” he said, continuing to walk without another word. 

Brian mouthed a quick “what the fuck?” at Jisung before they both followed after Chan. 

That was weird as hell, Jisung thought. If it turned out Chan was actually a serial killer who was leading them both somewhere to chop them up into pieces, he’d be upset to say the least.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Thankfully, Chan wasn’t a serial killer and Jisung remained sufficiently unchopped which he was feeling pretty jazzed about. No, instead he showed them the town centre which consisted of a few little cafes, a couple of bars, an odd handful of shops, a bakery which was right next to a butchers and then _another fucking church._ Nothing out of the ordinary. Pretty easy to imagine. Old fashioned buildings made out of brick, worn away over the years.

Then he took them to one of the cafes, telling them both that this one was usually where most kids his age loitered around in when they were bored. 

  
It was cute inside. A little run down, but in a charismatic sort of way. The walls were painted pale blue and were lined with slightly scruffy leather booths. It wasn’t quite a 50s diner, but it was pretty close. It had _character._  
  
“This is where we usually all hang out. I think a lot of my friends are actually gonna be in your year, Jisung,” Chan said. “Oh and a couple of people who work here will be in your year too, Brian, and so will I obviously.”  
  
Jisung looked around. It wasn’t packed but it was reasonably busy for the middle of the afternoon. A few groups of girls were packed into booths to his right, giggling and talking quietly to one another. The table in the right hand corner had a group of boys who looked like they were playing Dungeons and Dragons or something and then a few random other people were dotted around at different tables. The first thing you saw when you walked in was the large counter, a number of red stools lined up the front of it, exactly like a diner would usually have.

“You see those guys?” Chan pointed at the two boys behind said counter who looked to be a little older than Jisung and were wearing uniforms. “That’s Sungjin and Jae. They’re my age.”

He pointed at a boy with dark brown hair and a kind face and round eyes, and a taller, thinner boy with choppy blond hair and circular glasses who both, upon noticing them, smiled and waved.

“Hey, whats up?” The dark haired boy called over. 

“These the new guys?” The blond asked, leaning on the counter as the three of them approached. “I’m Jae, possibly the best person you’ll ever meet.”

Jae gave them both a little salute and flashed them a smile. He was clearly joking, but that didn’t stop the other boy, Sungjin apparently, from rolling his eyes.

“I’m Sungjin.” Well that confirmed that theory. Sungjin held out a hand, which Jisung took, shaking it. “Friends with him for some reason.”

“Jisung,” he said before pointing to his brother. That’s Brian.”

“Hey, so you’re gonna be joining our year at school, right?” Sungjin asked, leaning against the counter casually. He seemed genuinely nice as well as genuinely interested. 

“Yeah, I-” Brian began to respond before he was completely cut off but Jae.

“Pick a card, my guy.” Jae had, for whatever reason, suddenly reached down behind the counter and had presented a deck of cards to Brian, each with a different weird picture.

“Are those… tarot cards?” Jisung stared at the cards in surprise, looking to Chan who just gave him a shrug like it was normal. Jisung, however, wasn’t even sure he’d ever seen tarot cards in real life.

“Not this shit again.” Sungjin reaches over, trying to knock the cards out of Jae’s hands but Jae had very long limbs and held them out of his reach, trying to shove him off. “Dude you can’t just whip those out on people. It’s weird.” 

“What the hell are you _talking_ about?!” Jae look positively outraged. “I’m hurt and offended and I expect you to make an apology video. It’s how I make friends.”

“God, you’re annoying,” Sungjin muttered, giving up trying to fight it, which only made Jae smile proudly. “That was not even close to being a compliment.”

“Too late. I took it as one.” Jae said smugly, turning back to Brian without a second thought. “So anyway.”

“Uh, sure.” Brian replied, reaching out to pick a card, looking slightly scared, slightly amused.

“I think you’ve got this covered.” Chan said, waving goodbye to Sungjin, who just looked so fed up of Jae. Jisung just assumed they were old friends. Only old friends could piss each other off that much and still bear to be around each other afterwards. “Jisung, come with me. I want you to meet some people.”

Chan put a hand on Jisung’s shoulder, pulling him in another direction, effectively leaving Brian to the wolves, the wolves, of course, being Jae. He waved at a booth in the back left hand corner where five boys sat. They all seemed to notice him and waved back.

“Don’t mind Jae. He thinks he’s psychic. It’s a whole thing.” Chan was so nonchalant so Jisung just accepted the weirdness of that statement.

“Hey dude,” one of the boys called as they approached. He had black hair and was also dressed entirely in black.

“Guys, this is Jisung,” Chan said, putting his hand’s on Jisung’s shoulders. 

“Oh the new guy?” One of the other boys, this time with orange hair, asked.

“Sorry, does _everyone_ know we moved here?” Jisung whispered to Chan.

“Small town, dude.” Chan shrugged. “Everyone knows everything.”

“That isn’t scary at all.” Jisung muttered to himself.

“So that’s Hyunjin and Seungmin.” Chan pointed at two boys who were sitting extremely close together. One boy had cherry red hair and was wearing a gray hoodie despite the fact that it had been really hot outside. The other boy had jet black hair which was longer in the back and fell in a gentle swoop over his forehead and was wearing what looked like a silk shirt, covered in all manners of loud, colourful patterns but this boy looked like he could be a model so he pulled it off. “And that ray of sunshine is Minho.”

The boy Chan pointed glared back at him.

“He’s nice if you don’t make eye contact,” Hyunjin whispered across the table teasingly, his arm wrapped tightly around Seungmin’s waist.

When Jisung first looked at Minho, there wasn’t immediate chemistry and sparks didn’t fly, but his breath hitched in his throat because this boy was looking right at him and he was incredibly good looking. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling but it was mostly intimidation. Minho’s hair was inky black and parted in the middle, falling in soft waves that framed his face. His eyes were piercingly beautiful and Jisung felt like they were staring right through him. The eye contact didn’t last for long though because as soon as Minho caught Jisung looking back, he looked away quickly. Jisung thought he saw the corners of his lips curl up into what was almost a smile but he wasn’t sure.

“And that’s Felix.” Chan pointed to the orange-haired boy who had spoken earlier. He had a soft, kind, feminine face and his pale cheeks were covered in a light dusting of freckles. He gave a soft wave, eyes crinkling around the edges when he smiled and Jisung wondered if he was looking at an angel. “And beside him is Changbin.”

“What’s up?” Changbin gave him a friendly smile, leaning against Felix’s shoulder. He was the boy who’d spoken first who was dressed completely in black. He looked kinda scary but Jisung suspected that wasn’t the case at all.

“So where did you move from?” Seungmin asked him. 

“California.”

“Oh shit,” Hyunjin cursed in surprise. “That’s pretty far. Why did you move all the way out here?” 

“When I work that one out, I’ll let you know.” Jisung shrugged. “I have absolutely no idea. My mom just kinda told me we were moving here and I just went with it.

“So help me if you guys scare him off-” Chan warned them. He had big dad energy. Jisung could only imagine the disappointed look you might get from him if you actually pissed him off.

“Wow you think so little of us, Christopher.” Hyunjin smirked at him.

“Shut the hell up, _Sam_ , you sound like my mom.” Chan shot back.

“Chris is Chan’s english name.” Seungmin explained helpfully upon seeing how lost Jisung looked. “Sam is Hyunjin’s, not that he has ever used it.”

“Oh shit, hang on a second you guys.” Chan suddenly jumped up from the table.

“God, here we go again.” Hyunjin mumbled, rolling his eyes. Seungmin punched his arm and Hyunjin let out a fake cry of pain. “Minnie, why must you hurt me like this?”

“It’s cute. Leave him alone,” Seungmin scolded. 

Jisung was confused, watching as Chan hurried over to the counter, a giant smile on his face as he began talking to a boy who had just emerged from the back and was hanging up an apron identical to the ones Jae and Sungjin had been wearing. The boy was a couple of inches taller than Chan was and had wavy brown hair and a very calm expression. He seemed to noticeably perk up when Chan came over to him.  
  
Jisung didn’t think anything of it, other than the fact that they were clearly friends.  


“So, Chan just sort of dragged you here and forced you to sit with us?” Minho asked, leaning on his hand on the table, drawing Jisung’s attention away from Chan and the other boy. Jisung nodded with a sort of uncomfortable smile. He wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, but he just had no idea how to talk to these people he didn’t even remotely know.

“I’m so sorry.” Seungmin apologised. “He’s just super friendly but that’s probably really weird.”

“A little,” Jisung shrugged. “He’s being nice though. I thought I was just gonna have to hide in my house for three months because I didn’t know anyone.”

“Well, now that Chan’s targeted you, that’s definitely not gonna be a problem,” Changbin joked, his eyes following Chan as he came back over with the boy he’d been talking to.  


“Jisung, I want you to meet Woojin.” Chan introduced the boy, who gave him a soft smile but didn’t say anything. Chan seemed to be literally glowing in his presence. Jisung didn’t think he’d ever seen someone smile harder in his entire life.

Chan sat back down at the other end of the booth, shuffling up to allow room for Woojin, who immediately slid right up next to him, putting an arm around his shoulders and pulling him closer so he could press a kiss to the side of his head, which actually somehow made Chan smile even harder.  
  
“You two are dating then?” Jisung asked, trying to contribute to the conversation. Chan turned pink, leaning his head against Woojin’s shoulder as they both nodded.  
  
“Why? Do you have a problem with that?” Minho asked, staring at him intensely, sending a wave of guilt and anxiety washing over Jisung.  
  
“No, that’s not- I’m actually- oh god-“ he stammered, but then Minho grinned smugly at him and Changbin punched his shoulder.

“We’ve been dating for about three years now,” Chan said, glowing with pride. It was even obvious to Jisung, who had known Chan for less than an hour, that they loved each other a hell of a lot. Jisung has never seen a couple quite like them actually, now that he thought about it. Teenager relationships didn’t look like that. Chan and Woojin looked as if they’d been together for far longer the three years, but even three years was impressive for a couple of teenagers.  
  
“Don’t scare him off, you monster,” Hyunjin joked. “Please just ignore him.”  
  
“You guys are dating too then?” Jisung looked between Hyunjin and Seungmin, since it seemed like the next obvious question. if he was being held hostage by Chan and was going to see these people more often, he wanted to at least know what their relationships were with one another.  
  
“Wha- no-“ Hyunjin turned bright red, retracting his arm from Seungmin’s waist and Seungmin all but leapt away from him, shaking his head.  
  
“We’re just best friends,” Seungmin assure him in a quiet, not very convincing voice, his own cheeks very red too.  
  
“They’ve know each other basically since the day they were born,” Chan told him from across the table with a look that told him not to worry about it. A lot of people made that same assumption.  
  
Jisung tried to nod along with the conversation as it continued, but the entire time he could feel Minho and Woojin both staring at him and he wasn’t sure why. He certainly didn’t want to look and make eye contact with them but he kept doing it. It’s like that thing where you know someone is looking at you so you keep looking back just to check whether they’re still looking and they are and then you make weird prolonged eye contact and it’s just uncomfortable for everyone involved. Whenever he glanced at Minho, the other boy looked away quickly, however when he looked at Woojin, he kept staring directly at him and it was so beyond intimidating. Actually, it was also fucking weird. Woojin looked as if he were analyzing him or studying him, like he was trying to work out who he was just from how he looked. Woojin seemed like the type of guy to have trust issues and the fact that he also looked scary made Jisung feel, well, _scared_.

On the other hand, Minho seemed more on the shy side, and not only that, he might’ve been one of the most beautiful people Jisung had ever seen in his entire life. Wait, did he already mention that? Well, it was very very true. Objectively, of course. He was _objectively_ beautiful. Jisung knows how to recognise beauty when he sees it and Minho definitely was beautiful. There was nothing more to it.  
  
“Hey, I’m having a party tomorrow night. You should come,” Hyunjin’s voice snapped Jisung out of his mini Minho trance. He looked over at him and realized he was definitely talking to him. As Hyunjin spoke, he hoped no one noticed him sliding back up to be close to Seungmin again. Everyone noticed.  
  
“Really?” Jisung asked, looking at him in surprise and Hyunjin answered with a bright smile.  
  
“Of course. You seem really cool,” he replied, draping his arm around Seungmin’s shoulders, the redhead visibly relaxing in his hold.  
  
“Huh.” Jisung was starting to think things wouldn’t be so boring in this place. He also thought he was in the twilight zone because this shouldn’t be happening. No one ever asked him anywhere. They just didn’t. “I… thank you.”

“He has parties a lot,” Felix pointed out. “His house is _huge._ Like way too big.”

“It’s not _that_ big,” Hyunjin muttered sulkily. 

“Sweetie, you know I love you, but that house is like it’s own damn planet,” Felix teased, a playful smirk on his lips. 

“Don’t you have some fucking trees to hug?” Hyunjin fired back, sounding slightly grumpy. 

“Oh shit,” Felix pulled his phone out of his pocket, eyes widening when he saw the time. “You’re actually right. I need to go. Sorry guys can I…”

Jisung stood up, allowing Minho to get out of the booth which allowed Changbin to get out which allowed Felix to get out. Whoever invented the concept of booths should be locked up. They inconvenience everyone.

“I’ll walk you round,” Changbin said to him, a pink tinge to his cheeks. Felix smiled gratefully and his smile was like the sun. 

“Don’t you always,” Felix replied, grabbing his hand. “Sorry guys, I need to go to work. See you tomorrow though?”

The rest of the boys at the table said their goodbyes, most of them grabbing their coats too. 

“Lix works at the florists.” Jisung jumped at the sound of Minho’s quiet voice so close to his ear. He turned around to see the taller boy standing only a few inches away from him, mostly likely due to the cramped space but still, it sent chills down Jisung’s neck. Nice chills, just to be clear. Not like… horror movie chills or something. “He loves flowers. That’s why Hyunjin made that joke.”

“It was nice to meet you, Jisung,” Felix said warmly. Jisung decided he liked Felix a lot. “See you tomorrow maybe? If you decide to come?”

“Yeah maybe,” Jisung told him, waving at both him and Changbin as Felix dragged the shorter boy away by the hand. 

“I think we’re heading off too,” Chan said, both him and Woojin standing up, their fingers tightly interlocked. “I have to pick up my sister. Minho, you can make sure Jisung gets home alright, can’t you?”

“No promises he won’t get kidnapped,” Minho replied with a shrug. Jisung looked at Chan with wide eyes, praying that he wouldn’t leave.

“You’re a nightmare,” Chan told Minho, who seemed happy about the nickname. “Jisung, you’ll be fine. Don’t let him freak you out. He does it deliberately.”

Jisung didn’t feel reassured. Not even a little. He was too young to be kidnapped and to be honest, on the theoretical list of things he’d really prefer to not happen, kidnapping was pretty high up.

“See you later?” Chan looked hopeful when he asked, which is why Jisung nodded. “Well, it was great meeting you. I hope this helped you relax a little, even if it was a little chaotic.”

“It actually did. Thanks.” Jisung actually meant it because, all jokes aside, he wasn’t as scared by the concept of unending loneliness anymore. Chan’s extremely forward friendliness might’ve been the push he’d needed.

After Chan and Woojin said their goodbyes and left, Jisung, suddenly more nervous than before, turned to face Minho. He glanced at Seungmin and Hyunjin but the two of them seemed to be lost in each other’s eyes and it was _gross_ so he didn’t want to interrupt.  
  
“You live near Chan, right?” Minho asked him. Jisung nodded, suddenly becoming shy. _Why did he have to be even prettier up close?_ “Cool, we’ll just walk back together then.”  
  
“Uh- okay,” Jisung replied apprehensively because the concept of a one on one conversation with _anyone_ he’d just met was nothing short of petrifying, no matter how pretty the person was. Minho raised an eyebrow.  
  
“What? Something wrong with me?” He asked, staring him dead in the eye. Jisung stepped back, feeling horribly guilty again. Was this going to be a theme with Minho?  
  
“N- no, that not-“  
  
“Relax, I’m kidding again,” Minho broke out into the first actual smile Jisung had seen on him. 

“Stop doing that,” Jisung whined desperately, following Minho towards the exit of the cafe, glancing over at his brother before he left. Brian seemed fine. Actually, he seemed more than fine. He seemed to have grabbed the attention of not only Sungjin and Jae but another waiter who hadn’t been there before. He looked oddly like Seungmin so Jisung wondered if they were related. Either way, his brother’s ability to make friends that easily was nothing short of aggravating. 

Minho held the door open for him as they both left, the little bell above the door ringing as they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dude this was originally all the same chapter but I had to split it onto three parts bc I literally can’t shut up and no one wants like 8000 words in a chapter and updates every three months. That’s so annoying.
> 
> Next chapter: Minho and Jisung talk to each other properly for the first time and Jisung can’t help but notice that they just seem to click with each other.


	3. you’re so cool

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the song rec for this chapter is You’re So Cool by Nicole Dollanganger.
> 
> It’s a really cute song pls give it a listen

“So...” It was maybe a fifteen minute walk back to his house, if he even remembered where it was and honestly, he wasn’t convinced that he did, so Jisung thought he should try and start a conversation with Minho. “Hyunjin and Seungmin. They seem close…”

“It’s insufferable, isn’t it?” Minho replied immediately, giving him a shy smile, shoving his hands deep into his pockets as he walked.

“Are they usually just like that?” Jisung took the time to take in Minho’s full appearance. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen someone this attractive before. Minho was quite a bit taller, although Jisung was tiny so it admittedly wasn’t hard. Jisung knew he was small. He wasn’t happy about it but at least he could admit it to himself. He was really skinny too. Minho looked as if he could probably snap him in half if he wanted to but alternatively he also looked like he could give really good hugs which was a very important detail.

Minho nodded in response to his question. “For as long as I’ve known them. I don’t think I’m violating their trust by telling you that they like each other. It’s so obvious.”

“Yeah I kinda assumed,” Jisung laughed nervously, looking away after he realised he’d been staring for too long.

“Are you gonna come? To Hyunjin’s I mean,” Minho asked, looking like he was genuinely curious.

Jisung shrugged. “I’m not... a party person honestly.”

It wasn’t a total lie. He was sociable and liked talking to people, but he didn’t care about all the other dumb shit people his age did. He drank sometimes but he didn’t ever do it to the point where he felt sick because really what was the point? You just felt like shit the next day anyway.

He felt awkward about this particular party because he didn’t know if he was up for introducing himself five thousand times to different people who’d just forget who he was the next day and then standing in the corner uncomfortably, talking to no one because no one knew who he was.

“Me neither,” Minho replied with a smile. “They’re exhausting. I just go to laugh at drunk people. Hyunjin’s house is huge and it’s always empty because his parents are basically out of town permanently, so he throws parties like this all the time.”

“He just lives all by himself?” Jisung asked, genuinely surprised.

“He has siblings, but yeah. He has an older brother, a younger brother and a younger sister too, plus there’s usually employees looking after them, but it’s a big house.” Minho explained. “His older brother and his boyfriend are like the unofficial parents of the house but they don’t care about him having parties at all.”

“Wow.” So Hyunjin was a rich boy. Good to know. It sounded pretty lonely though, if he was being honest. The cliche life of a rich teenager with absent parents. He didn’t know what he’d do without his mom and dad.

“Seungmin basically lives there too,” Minho added. “He goes over almost every day just so Hyunjin isn’t alone.”

“What about you? Any siblings?” He asked Minho, but the second the question left his lips, he saw Minho’s smile vanish and his gaze fall to the floor and Jisung knew he shouldn’t have even asked. “Shit, sorry. If that’s a sore topic-“

“No, no, it’s fine,” Minho insisted, but he didn’t look fine. The smile had returned but now it seemed forced. “I have an older brother. He just- he doesn’t live here anymore. He’s older so he left town with all his friends, including Chan’s step brother, and now he’s a singer and has a fiancé. I’m happy for him, I really am, but…”

Minho cut himself off, realising he was ranting to a boy he’d only just met about his family drama. A few seconds of silence passed, and Minho felt Jisung’s worried gaze on him the entire time. Then he spoke again, this time in a tiny voice. “I just really miss him.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up anything.” Jisung’s heart was racing. He’d somehow managed to fuck up by asking a perfectly innocent question.

“Quit apologising it’s okay,” Minho told him, and the genuine smile was back and all Jisung could think about was how breathless it made him feel. Minho’s eyes were angular like a cat’s but when he actually smiled, they turned into crescent moon shapes and sparkled brighter than the actual moon itself. Jisung already had the impression that Minho wasn’t someone who smiled very much, so when he really did, it was probably a really good sign. “I really don’t mind, you just caught me off guard. Besides, it actually feels good to talk about this stuff. We aren’t really meant to talk about it.”

“What do you mean?” That was the second time someone had said some weird shit like that to him today, the first time being Chan, and in response, Minho became just as shifty as Chan had and became really quiet and began looking around as if he was looking for anyone listening.

“I can’t say anything here.” Minho’s voice was hushed now, and he leaned over closer to him so he didn’t have to talk that loud. “I thought Chan might’ve told you.”

Chan didn’t tell him anything about whatever the hell Minho meant. The weirdest thing he’d said was “don’t go out at night” which was about as vague and menacing as you could get and he’d never actually told him why.

They’d been talking for a while now and Jisung had been paying far too much attention to Minho rather where he’d been walking and Minho had stopped outside a house that looked pretty similar to his own. It had a really similar porch to the one that had been outside his own and looked like a typical American suburban house.

“So, uh, this is my house,” Minho looked at the group, nudging a small stone that had been dislodged from the driveway with his foot to try and distract from his sudden awkwardness. Saying bye to people was always weird when you were in the middle of a conversation. There was never a good time to leave. “I can give you my number if you want. To like… explain everything. Only if you want though obviously.”

Minho’s ears had turned red so Jisung knew he was embarrassed and it made him smile a lot. It was actually really cute how painfully shy this boy clearly was, even if he tried to pretend he wasn’t.

If he was being perfectly honest, Jisung was still really confused, but what was he supposed to do? Not take Minho’s phone number? That would be rude! Plus, as mentioned before, he was really confused and this seemed important so he handed Minho his phone to let him type the number in.

When he gave it back, Minho gave him a shy smile and said bye before walking up the driveway to his house, gravel crunching under his feet.

Jisung sort of recognised where he was because he’d walked this way with Chan earlier, so he knew his house was probably around the corner.

As he walked, his phone buzzed.

New chat

Minho: Hey it’s Minho

Minho: wait shit I typed a contact name nvm you know that

Jisung: Hey

Jisung: It’s Jisung

Jisung: wait I just did the same thing you did rip

Minho: skskdikssksk its fine

Jisung: Well it’s probably good you find out quickly. I’m a huge dumbass.

When Jisung arrived back at his house, all traces of moving trucks were gone and the door was closed so the unloading of boxes must’ve been completed.

He opened the door, tempted to scream “what’s up fuckers?” just to announce his arrival, but decided against it because he liked being alive and, if he did that, the first thing his mom would do to break in the new house would be to bury his hopeless body in the garden.

So instead, he took the stealthy option, closing the door as quietly as possible and tiptoeing up to his new room to avoid any interruptions from his parents. The room was full of boxes that he needed to unpack, but instead of doing that, he threw himself down onto his bed which had been brought up by the movers and stared at his phone, typing out a text to Minho.

Jisung: what did u mean earlier?

Minho: About my brother?

Jisung: u said we aren’t supposed  
to talk about it

Minho: Yeah

Minho: so basically

Minho: locals here don’t really like  
when people leave

Minho: idrk why but they just don’t

Minho: my brother and his friends had  
dreams outside of here and they  
wanted out but they tried leaving  
a couple of times and it all went  
to shit

Jisung: wdym?

Minho: idk I was younger

Minho: when they managed to escape  
they all knew they could never  
come back

Jisung: what happened?

Minho: idk my brother won’t talk about it and I don’t wanna push him

Minho: all the people here  
were born here so they don’t  
like when people leave

Minho: it’s like they’re betraying the town  
or something idk

Jisung: that’s insane minho wtf

Jisung: do you still talk to your brother?

Minho: he’s pretty busy now

Minho: there isn’t really time

Minho: I don’t wanna bother him

Minho: he’s getting married soon  
and I want to be there but  
I don’t think I can go

Jisung: Why can’t you go?

Minho: if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me

Jisung: uh… okay?

Minho: I’m sorry this must be so weird. shit around here gets strange sometimes

Jisung: I’ll get used to it

Jisung: hopefully

Jisung: So you said your brother was a singer?

Minho: yeah he’s really popular now sksksk

Minho: he did really well for himself tbh it’s kinda cool

Minho: we used to dance together when I was a kid

Jisung: would I know him?

Minho: maybe. his name is Jungkook?

Jisung: OMG SIDIGUJDJSJFJSJDJ

Jisung: WHAT

Jisung: SERIOUSLY????

Jisung: as in JUNGKOOK?

Minho: sksksksks yeah

Jisung: so that entire band-

Jisung: all came from this town?

Minho: yep pretty much. Namjoon is Chan’s step brother and he went to school with Kookie as well as Yoongi, Hoseok, Jimin, and Jin.

Jisung: who is Jimin?

Minho: oh shit

Minho: nvm ignore that

Jisung: is there a seventh member of the group idk about skaksksksks

Minho: no no hes

Minho: nvm it doesn’t matter

Jisung: Chan literally told me he had a brother called Namjoon I’m so stupid rip

Jisung: so jungkook is marrying taehyung right?

Jisung: sorry im being so annoying  
you don’t even know me

Minho: Don’t worry it’s cute

Minho: I’m trying get to know you

Minho: taehyung is the only member I haven’t met. I used to be around kookie all the time so the others are basically family. he’s really sweet tho I can see why kookie loves him so much.

Minho: anyways, I figured I should warn  
you to be careful about what you  
talk about. inside closed doors its  
okay but weird shit has happened  
before

Jisung: this is,,, weird

Jisung: thanks for telling me tho

Minho: np

Minho: chan mentioned the curfew  
right?

Jisung: ??????

Minho: alrighty so the sort of unofficial town curfew is 10pm but like,,,,

Minho: fuck that noise

Minho: just don’t go out by yourself after like midnight it’s just a bad idea

Jisung: I’m so confused

Minho: I don’t blame you. Just do me a favor and don’t do it. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you why

Minho: and don’t talk about this shit in public

Minho: you seem cool and we don’t get  
new people here

Minho: like ever

Minho: when we do, they’re usually gone  
in less than a month and we never ever hear from them again

Minho: so just stick with us and you’ll be  
good

Minho: and don’t be a dumbass

Minho: I don’t believe you are one

Minho: that’s what Felix and Hyunjin are  
for

Jisung: Felix didn’t seem that bad-

Minho: oof you haven’t seen him in his element

Minho: prepare yourself he has maybe  
two functioning brain cells

Minho: One time he tried to eat cereal with chopsticks once instead of just washing a spoon

Jisung: wow,,,

Minho: ik it was tragic

Minho: so

Minho: do you think you can come?

Minho: to Hyunjin’s party I mean

Minho: im sorry for asking so much it’s probably annoying sksksksk

Jisung: no it’s not >:(((

Jisung: I probably could I just

Minho: I feel like I’m being too much we only just met lmao sorry

Jisung: stop apologizing :( trust me this is okay

Jisung: I was rlly nervous ngl

Jisung: Like I thought I’d really have no one to talk to

Minho: don’t be nervous

Minho: I mean now that Chan has claimed you, you’ll never get rid of him

Jisung: yeah I was gonna ask is he always that friendly?

Minho: weirdly no

Minho: I was so scared of him when we first met

Jisung: Seriously? The dude has sunshine coming out of his ass how could you be scared of him?

Minho: he never used to be like that

Minho: he used to be super cold and closed off

Minho: Then he started dating Woojin and just sort of softened

Jisung: I don’t think Woojin liked me at all

Jisung: he was lowkey scary no offense

Minho: nah he’s just like that. He’s super protective over everyone. Especially Chan. It just takes him a while to trust people.

Minho: just don’t mess with chan bc he’ll fuck you up

Jisung: damn there go my plans for this summer then :///

Minho: slsksksksksk

Minho: wooj is a big softie he just seems scary bc he doesn’t talk much. Chan is too nice and people have hurt him before, same with a few of the others too, so Woojin probably just wants to make sure you aren’t gonna do that. He’s so so soft I promise.

Jisung: I’ll take your word for it ig

Minho: So why’d you move here?

Jisung: Tbh? People keep asking but I have no idea. Mom and dad just kinda said we were moving and then we did-

Minho: weird

Minho: can you like still talk to your old friends and stuff?

Jisung: eh tbh I didn’t really have many close friends

Minho: big sad :(

Minho: well you have us now :) even if it’s been like two hours

Minho: Chan will literally protect you with his life already tbh

Minho: Plus you seem cool

Minho: I already said that whoops sorry

Jisung: Thanks :(((

Minho: Sorry about freaking you out about woojin and chan earlier

Jisung: You should be :( I nearly cried ngl

Minho: Lmao now I feel bad

Jisung: good >:(

Minho: :)

Minho: so uh

Minho: you don’t n e e d to come but

Minho: It would be cool to see you at hyunjin’s tomorrow

Minho: I can warn you about all the people you need to avoid at school it’ll be fun

Jisung: tbh that would probably be really helpful actually people are g r o s s

Minho: dude you don’t even know the half of it. hyunjin has like a whole fanbase who follow him around. stay away from them and you’ll be good.

Jisung: that’s,,,, really weird,,,,, why-

Minho: idk he’s hot or something ig I haven’t noticed

Jisung: i mean he was really pretty to be fair

Minho: damn don’t let them hear you say that. you’ll be marked for death.

Minho: Seungmin might be one of the most hated people at school by those people literally cuz he and Hyunjin are so close

Jisung: damn :(((

Minho: ik :(((( minnie is like a literal ray of sunshine too it sucks

Minho: just another reason woojin is the way he is. people leave minnie alone when he’s around.

Jisung: I’ve said maybe two sentences to seungmin in total but I’d literally die for him not to be dramatic

Minho: it sucks bc he’s the student Vice President so he can’t exactly avoid all those people. I can hide from anyone I want.

Minho: perks of being a loser ;)

Jisung: are you bragging about being a loser?

Minho: hell yeah

Jisung: nice

Minho: if you decide to come, I can point Hyunjin’s social circle out to you.

Minho: I mean he basically always hangs out with us anyway, but he has other friends who are like a whole different breed

Minho: I say friends,,,,

Minho: they’re just bad news. they kiss hyunjin’s ass bc he has money and he’s pretty.

Minho: sorry im ranting

Jisung: no no go off im here for it

Jisung: also

Jisung: I guess it wouldn’t hurt if I came to the party

Minho: yay :D

They continued texting for hours.  
It was so easy to talk to Minho. Jisung couldn’t believe how wide he was smiling at his own phone. He kept replying even when his mom found where he was hiding and made him come and help unpack things. She yelled at him to put his phone down, but she was secretly really happy and how much he was smiling already. She knew Jisung was a good kid, he just needed a push and then he’d be fine.

Jisung didn’t get as much sleep as he normally would have that night, partly because he wasn’t used to the new house and felt a little disoriented but also because Minho kept replying to him and he didn’t want to sleep. Talking to him made him feel actually excited about his future living here. He hoped he and Minho would be become friends and not drift away from each other. Being friends with Minho sounded really nice.

He had so many questions though, but he couldn’t ask any of them. So Minho just knew every single member of one of the most popular bands in the world? Jisung heard BTS all the time on the radio. They were huge and he even considered himself a fan of them. He knew they’d come from a small town and all grew up together, but they never went into specifics about anything. Seeing it from a different perspective, Jisung couldn’t help but question how much Minho’s brother actually cared about him if he’d just left him. Plus why couldn’t they come back? And who was Jimin?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I already posted this but the format was fUcKed so here it is again
> 
> I’m still waiting in line to see SKZ so if there’s typos, whOops


	4. show me what it’s all about

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is Faded Heart by BØRNS
> 
> Idk it just made me think of Minsung plus it slaps so

Jisung was woken up the next morning by his phone buzzing on his face. When he opened his eyes, he realised his dumbass had fallen asleep halfway through writing a text to Minho. Looking at his phone, he cringed when he realised it had actually gone through as well.

  
  
  
  


_2:46am_

  
  


Jisung: okay but what aboutjjejrjridh

Minho: ?????

Minho: you good?

  
  
  


_3:02am_

  
  


Minho: oh shit wait are you asleep

Minho: why would I ask that 

Minho: not like you’re gonna answer yes

Minho: unless you sleep text 

Minho: I’m gonna shut up now 

Minho: omg wait did you die

Minho: rip :(

Minho: I’m gonna feel like shit if you actually died 

Minho: you seem like the kinda guy who’d want to be cremated 

Minho: okay shutting up now sorry 

Minho: idk how to delete messages so I’m sorry 

Minho: goodnight 

  
  
  


Jisung didn’t think he’d ever been so excited about getting spammed with texts before. Actually, he wasn’t sure if he ever had actually been spammed with texts before. It was nice, but that was probably because it never happened to him.

  
  
  


_10:28am_

  
  


Jisung: idk about being cremated 

Jisung: I have many enemies and I don’t want to miss out on getting to haunt them 

  
  
  
  


Minho replied almost instantly and Jisung’s heart nearly did a backflip. He hid his smile behind his sleeve as he read the messages.

  
  
  


Minho: oh my god you’re rIGHT

Minho: how could I be so stupid 

Minho: if you get burned you can’t come back as a ghost 

Minho: you said you were a dumbass but you’re literally already smarter than me 

Minho: hey I can see you reading these don’t ignore me like this

Jisung: <3

Minho: :o

Minho: alright you’re forgiven

Jisung: :D

Minho: alright so

Minho: if you’re still gonna come, I’ll be outside your house at like 9ish???

Minho: if you AREN’T gonna come please tell me

Jisung: no I’m coming

Minho: good

Minho: bc I don’t want to look like a stalker just standing outside your house 

Minho: if I was gonna stalk you I’d be way smarter about it

Jisung: wow 

Jisung: we love a stalker who doesn’t halfass things 

Minho: only the best for you ;)

  
  
  
  
  
  


It seemed like 9 o’clock would never arrive but by the time it did eventually roll around, he had already been waiting by the front door for ten minutes. After a lengthy lecture from his mom about keeping in contact and not doing drugs, he was finally allowed to leave and the first sight that met his eyes when he stepped outside was Minho leaning against the wall outside his house.

He was wearing a shirt with vertical blue and white stripes and black jeans with his hair parted down the middle and it was actually _annoying_ how good he looked.

When Minho heard him coming, he gave him a smile that would turn even the most heterosexual boy completely gay and Jisung was (spoiler alert) absolutely not straight so the effects of Minho’s smile on him were a thousand times more intense. He was surprised he was still alive, quite honestly.

“I’m glad you came,” Minho told him. “This’ll be fun, I promise. Only some minor cult activity.”

“Okay, well I’m not saying I _want_ to be sacrificed because I don’t, but if there’s no _attempt_ to sacrifice me I’ll be insulted,” Jisung said, which made Minho smile.

“Dude, of course. We’re professionals. We always sacrifice newcomers,” Minho promised. “By the way, I just figured I should warn you. Hyunjin is… annoying. Just in general but especially when he’s drunk. He might try and hug you but just tell him to go away. Chan _will_ hug you and there’s really nothing I can do about that, sorry. Everyone else is cool. Very loud but cool.”

“So you brought me here as bait. I suffer through the hugs so you don’t have to.” Jisung raised an eyebrow at Minho who just grinned.

“Now you’re getting it.” Minho patted his shoulder. “It’ll be fine. You probably won’t die.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


To say Hyunjin’s house was big was an understatement.

“Holy shit,” were the first words out of Jisung’s mouth when he saw it.

“Yeah, I know. It’s ridiculous,” was Minho’s reply.

You know in every movie or tv show that has a rich kid with an absurdly big house that’s so absurdly big that no one could possibly comfortably live in it? Yeah, whatever you’re picturing is probably accurate.

The music from the house was so loud you could hear it down the street but the house was sort of by itself so there weren’t really people who could make any noise complaints.

“Ready?” Minho asked when they reached the front door and climbed up the steps. 

“Can’t wait to be sacrificed,” Jisung replied which made Minho smile.

“That’s the spirit.”

Minho opened the door, the volume of the music and the screaming deafening them both immediately. 

“Oh shit!” Both of them looked around at the sound of someone yelling. Jisung looked to his right to see Felix and Changbin stumbling over to them. 

“Minho I was literally about to cry. I thought you weren’t coming!” Changbin exclaimed, attempting to hug him but it came off more like he was trying to suffocate him. Minho stiffened the second he touched him and Jisung wondered if he was just one of those people who didn’t like anyone touching them or if he specifically didn’t like his drunk friends touching him. Changbin sort of grabbed his face and squished it a bit. No one really knew what he was trying to accomplish by squishing Minho’s face, but no one really knew what Changbin was doing 90% of the time anyway as Jisung would quickly learn.

“Jesus, it’s fucking half past nine,” Minho cursed, shoving Changbin away. “How are you already drunk?”

“mmm not drunk, baby,” Changbin giggled, jokingly trying to kiss Minho’s cheeks before Felix hauled him off. Minho’s face was the epitome of disgust.

“Hey Jisung.” Changbin waved from Felix’s hold around him. “Thanks for coming.”

“Thank god you’re still sober, Lix,” Minho said, but Felix shook his head.

“Nah, I’m plastered right now. My blood content is naturally 90% tequila though. That’s why you can’t tell.” Felix being permanently drunk would actually explain so much of his personality.

“That’s enough of that.” Minho took Jisung’s hand and pulled him away, pushing through the crowd of people into the next room. “Good luck, Lix!”

The first sight that greeted him upon entering the room, which turned out to be the kitchen, was his brother.

“Who the hell let you in?” Jisung teased. “And how did you get here so fast? I left before you.”

“Oh I came with Jae and Wonpil and fun fact: Jae is a _wizard_ so we actually flew here,” Brian replied, pointing his elbow in the direction of the blond Jisung had briefly met yesterday and the guy who had looked suspiciously like Seungmin who must be Wonpil. Both of them were beside Sungjin and another guy Jisung didn’t recognise but he assumed he was just another one of their friends. Jae was holding a guitar and lightly strumming it which seemed to be entertaining the other people around him. Why was there always one guy at every party who just _had_ a guitar? 

“Oh, so how is Mr Psychic?” Jisung asked which caused Brian to laugh.

“He’s cool. He told me I’m gonna die in like six months but I’m like ninety percent sure he was kidding,” he replied.

“Oh. Well I hope you have a cool death,” Jisung told him.

“Thanks dude.” Brian nudged him playfully, before going back over to Jae and the others.

“So what do you drink?” Minho asked when Jisung turned back to face him, unscrewing the cap from a bottle of what looked like vodka and pouring it into a plastic cup.

“Uh…” Jisung was really out of his element here. He didn’t have an answer. “...alcohol?”

Minho stared at him, raising an eyebrow, looking back at the sea of nothing but alcohol on the table. “Damn I think we’re out.”

“I really don’t do this stuff all that often. I usually just drink the same thing as whoever I’m with,” Jisung confessed with a shrug. 

“That’s cool. I just don’t wanna pressure you or anything, you know?” Minho replied, pouring something else into the cup, before picking up another one and pouring out the same thing. He handed the cup to Jisung who sniffed it before taking a sip.

“Yeah, that seems about right,” Minho grinned upon seeing Jisung’s expression contort into one of pure disgust. “You’ll get used to it.”

He punched Jisung’s shoulder lightly before pushing past a few people to go into the next room, Jisung tailing close behind.

It was much quieter in the room since the source of the music seemed to be coming from the other side of the house.

“Hey what’s up guys?”

Chan waved over at them from where he and a few of the other people from the cafe yesterday were sitting. Jisung walked kind of behind Minho, slightly self conscious now, sitting down beside Minho on a sofa near the door, holding the gross drink in both hands. 

“So,” Chan asked from where he was curled up in Woojin’s lap, his boyfriend’s arms thrown around his waist. “How are you settling in?”

“Clearly we didn’t scare you off,” Seungmin added.

“You’ll have to try way harder than that if you want to get rid of me,” Jisung replied which made Minho laugh softly from beside him.

Woojin and Chan were _that_ couple. You know the one. The PDA couple. Yeah, it’s cute and all, but does everyone need to watch you kiss each other constantly? It was very sweet, to the point that every time Woojin would whisper something in Chan’s ear that made him smile or Chan turned around to kiss him, Jisung became more and more aware of just how painfully single he really was.

Hyunjin was there too and had his arm around Seungmin’s waist, pulling him close, the other hand resting on his thigh, stroking it softly. They looked so comfortable with each other.  
  
“Yeah have you ever seen friends act like that around each other?” Minho whispered to Jisung. “Didn’t think so.”

Hyunjin and Seungmin behaved like a couple who had been together for years. It was pretty cute, if a little sad because of how clear their feelings for each other were. 

There weren’t many people in the room other than them, but before anyone could say anything the door burst open and a small swarm of people came in, none of whom Jisung recognised.

“Everyone in the kitchen!” One of the guys yelled, pulling people towards the door. “That includes you two.”

Chan and Woojin were the guy’s next targets and Chan let out a soft whine as he was forcefully dragged out of his seat in Woojin’s lap and pulled away in the direction of the kitchen, Woojin following close behind. 

“You guys coming?” The guy asked them both. Minho shook his head and Jisung just sort of went with whatever he was doing. “Alright your loss.”

“What was that?” Jisung asked when the guy walked away.

“Probably some kind of drinking game,” Minho shrugged. 

They were the only ones left in the room, aside from Hyunjin and Seungmin, who were still sitting so close together, and then a couple of other people.

“Hyunjin!” A random (extremely drunk) girl stumbled over to the couch. “Everyone is waiting for you. Come _on.”_

She grabbed his shoulder and started shaking him, which caused him to roll his eyes and Seungmin’s smile to vanish. Probably knowing she’d only go away if he did what she wanted, Hyunjin reluctantly retracted his arm from around Seungmin, but not before he whispered something in his ear which made him turn red and hide his face, before standing up and letting the girl drag him away.

“Is that normal?” Jisung asked, and when Minho saw what he was looking at, he scoffed.

“Yeah,” he replied. “One of Hyunjin’s _fans_. They’re all basically live up his ass. It’s really annoying. Half the girls think they actually have a shot with him. And if it’s not them, he’s almost always getting chased by someone.”

“Don’t you?” Jisung asked, immediately regretting the question the second it left his lips. 

“M- me?” Minho raised an eyebrow, blushing a little. He hadn’t been expecting that. Jisung turned bright red.

“I just meant- because you’re- I don’t know I just thought- Hyunjin is so… and so are you… so I assumed-“

“Hey, just breathe,” Minho said, trying not to laugh at how flustered Jisung had become. “I appreciate it, but I don’t really get anything close to the same attention that Hyunjin does.”

“They’re obviously all blind then,” Jisung grumbled, feeling strangely defensive of Minho already. “No, wait. I don’t mean Hyunjin isn’t good looking. That came out wrong. I meant like, you not getting the same attention as him makes no sense because- oh my _god.”_

Jisung tried to look straight at the ground, the embarrassment overwhelming him. Minho burst into laughter at his ramblings.

“Jesus Christ, would you relax? I get what you mean, and I think it’s sweet,” Minho remarked, winking at him. Jisung felt actual _butterflies_ just looking at him. He knew then and there that this boy with sparkling eyes and a cat-like smile would be his undoing (if only he knew how right he was). “I’m just… not Hyunjin.”

Minho looked down at a spot on the floor, still smiling, but looking a little sad.

“ _You shouldn’t have to be_ ,” was the first thought that came into Jisung’s mind as he looked at him. Minho looked round at him as if he’d heard him and gave him a shy smile, the eye contact between them lingering for a few seconds.

“Anyway, I don’t think I’d want that sort of attention. All it does is hurt other people.” As he spoke, Jisung followed Minho’s gaze over to Seungmin, who was all alone, tracing patterns onto the sofa with his finger. He just looked _sad_ and kinda like he was used to it. 

“Does that happen a lot?” They both looked over at Seungmin as Jisung asked. 

“Often enough. Hyunjin is a good friend but he’s oblivious and Seungmin is good at pretending. He also doesn’t want any of us telling Jinnie it bothers him, so don’t mention it.” Minho said. “Especially about the bullying. I know it seems weird to not tell Hyunjin but Seungmin really doesn’t want him knowing.”

“But surely if that would stop it-“ Jisung began but Minho shook his head. 

“It might get worse actually. I don’t know what it’s like in the city but in places like this, people get bored so bullying can get really _really_ bad. If you go to a teacher or something, it just gets worse and the teachers here don’t give a shit anyway.”

Minho let out a heavy sigh. 

“Anyway, sorry, I’m ranting again. You don’t wanna hear all this shit.”

“No, no it’s okay. I don’t mind,” Jisung promised.

“Well, we do our best to protect Minnie. He’s pretty popular other than that group plus it’s not like they bother him that often so it’s not too bad. Could easily be worse.”

“So do you all hang out at school? You seem really close,” Jisung observed. 

“We’ve been friends for ages so yeah, but Woojin, Changbin and Chan all have football practice a lot, Seungmin does a lot of shit for the school, like he ran for student Vice President and won and Chan is the President, Felix is a cheerleader-“

“A cheerleader?” Minho has expected Jisung to laugh, just like people always did so he’d been prepared to defend his friend, but there was no need because Jisung looked genuinely interested. “Boys were never allowed to do that at my old school. That’s cool.”

“Well, our school never used to allow it but Felix is really good at annoying people into submission so he got what he wanted.”

“Who the fuck summoned me?!” A loud yell from behind the two of them sounded, and was met with several cheers from the few other people in the room. Changbin and Felix had announced their arrival. “What’s up, whores?” 

It was the first time Jisung had been called a whore in his life, but now that Felix was part of said life, it wouldn’t be the last.

Both he and Changbin walked (attempted to walk) over to Seungmin and flopped down on either side of him. 

“What’s wrong, baby?” Felix asked, clinging onto Seungmin like a Koala.

“Nothing, now let go!” Seungmin whined, wriggling in Felix’s hold, but all that happpened in response was Changbin also hugging him, much to Seungmin’s further disgust.

“Before you say anything…” Minho’s sudden voice in Jisung’s ear made him jump. “Yes this is normal and yes it is horrifying.”

“Seungminnie!” Felix yelled right in Seungmin’s ear. “Come with us to play beer pong.”

“You really think you both should be drinking more?” Seungmin asked.

“I’m actually immortal so try again, bitch.” Changbin’s voice was muffled by the fact that his face was semi-smushed into the sofa cushion.

“I didn’t ask, but thanks,” Seungmin replied.

This went on for about thirty minutes. Felix and Changbin would beg Seungmin to come with them, Seungmin would say no, Felix and Changbin would complain about it and then the cycle would repeat. They eventually got bored and left him along, wandering off to together, Changbin muttering something about fighting someone called Wooyoung for ignoring his texts.

“He’s always with San,” Changbin had muttered sulkily.

“They’re literally dating, headass. No shit he’s always with him,” Felix had replied.

That was the extent of what Jisung had heard. He didn’t know who Wooyoung was but given what he’d seen of Changbin and Felix so far, he’d pray for his soul.

“They’re…” Jisung began.

“...incredibly annoying,” Minho finished.

“You okay?” Jisung called over to Seungmin, who looked up in surprise, his features softening into a gentle smile.

“Yeah, it’s fine. I think I’m just gonna go-“ Seungmin stood up, as if he was going to leave.

“Oh my god.” As if on cue, Hyunjin appeared in the doorway, looking a lot drunker than he had been when he left. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“I literally haven’t moved,” Seungmin shot back, sounding slightly annoyed as Hyunjin stumbled over to him. 

Hyunjin threw his long arms completely around Seungmin, accidentally shoving him into the nearby wall.

“Get off me, you tree,” Seungmin whined, making no real effort to try and remove Hyunjin from himself. “You reek.”

“I’m not even drunk,” Hyunjin slurred, his cheek squishing against Seungmin’s face. 

“You’ve been drunk for the past five hours, you clown. You’re just a lot drunker now,” Seungmin pointed out, groaning as Hyunjin began pinching his cheeks and giggling. “Get your nasty hands away from me.”

“Look how pretty my Seungminnie is,” Hyunjin gushed, biting his lip when Seungmin scowled at him.

The look Jisung received from Minho was like he was on The Office and Minho was staring directly into the camera.

“I’m feeling sufficiently disgusted. Let’s go.” Minho grabbed Jisung’s hand and pulled him up and out of the room.

“Will Seungmin be okay now?” He asked, looking back as he was pulled out of the room.

“As long as Hyunjin is there, no one will try anything. They’re all fucking pussies,” Minho grumbled, getting heated just thinking about it. “Like if you’re gonna be a dick to someone, don’t also be a coward, you know? Own your shit.”

Jisung did _not_ know, the effects of whatever had been in the drink Minho had given him kicking in, yet he nodded anyway. 

He was dragged into the kitchen, where the sounds of cheering met his ears. God it was so loud literally everywhere. There appeared to be some kind of drinking game going on.

“Hey, you see that guy?” Minho whispered to Jisung, catching him by surprise, Minho’s breath on his neck. He pointed to a tall guy with black hair and an expensive looking shirt who was playing beer pong with a group of people, Chan and Woojin included. “That’s Jinyoung. He’s Hyunjin’s brother and that guy beside him…” 

Minho pointed at a guy close beside Jinyoung who was standing behind him and was about half an inch taller. He had also black hair which was cut into choppy layers at the front and he also had an arm around Jinyoung’s shoulders.

“...is his boyfriend Jaebeom. They’re both kinda local celebrities because they’re on the football team. Same with Chan, Changbin and Woojin actually. People really love sports because there’s almost nothing else to do here.”

“You don’t play?” Jisung asked, leaning against the kitchen counter, facing away from the crowd of people. Minho scoffed and shook his head. 

“Absolutely not. I don’t understand everyone’s fascination with it, but Chan, Binnie and Woojin are _really_ good so I go to their games to support them. I’m lucky they’re even friends with me honestly.”

As Jisung watched Minho talk, he picked up on the self deprecating tone. He wondered if comments like that would be a theme with Minho. (Spoiler alert: they would be.) Jisung already didn’t like how casually he threw them out.

“I’m sure it’s not luck. They obviously really like you.” Jisung watched Minho’s gaze break away. The black haired boy began fiddling with the edge of the plastic cup in his hands, not looking like he quite believed it. 

“Thanks, dude.” He sounded sincere, but he couldn’t look at Jisung.

“Hey! Jisung!” A pair of hands grabbed his shoulders and he jumped. Now he’d only met Changbin twice by this point so having the shorter boy grab him and drag him away from Minho over to the really loud group of drunk people wasn’t his favourite thing to ever happen to him. “Everyone, this is Jisung. Hurt him and I’ll fuck you up.”

Changbin’s loud (drunken) announcement was met by loud cheering and Felix grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the table

“You ever played before?” The guy who had dragged Chan away earlier asked him, pointing at all the cups.

“This is Bambam,” Chan helpfully added. Jisung shook his head in response to Bambam’s question.

“Just bounce the ball into the cup. If you get it, the other person has to drink,” Bambam explained.

To make a long story short, Jisung found out he was pretty damn good at beer pong. He got the ball in on his first try, and his small victory was celebrated by everyone around him cheering so loud he was concerned he might need medical help for his ears.

Unfortunately his opponent, who happened to be Changbin, was also very good and that’s how Jisung discovered just how much of a lightweight he was. Seriously, he couldn’t see like five feet past his own face as he moved out of the way to let someone else go, trying to make his way over to the backdoor to get some air.

Jisung opened the door, stepping out, the cool air hitting him suddenly. It wasn’t too cold, just very different from the heat in the kitchen. He let out sigh, not of boredom or anything. Just because he felt like it. Surprisingly, there was no one out here. It was a pretty big balcony and there must be over a hundred people inside at _least._

The light from the house semi-lit up the backyard which was much bigger than any Jisung had ever seen before and it wasn’t completely dark yet because it was the height of summer. It was just dark enough. This time of day is a bit weird. It’s like a lost hour. Nothing moves unless the wind moves it. It’s almost completely silent (well it would be normally but the loud ass EDM or whatever the hell it was sort of ruined it). Everything is just so… still. 

He was scared of the dark. He really was. At this time of day, you don’t want to stand around too long and you definitely don’t want to look around you, but at the same time you can’t stop looking. It was getting darker with each passing second but it wasn’t too dark so if something happened to be watching you from in the darkness, you’d definitely see it almost as clearly as it sees you. 

Morbid curiosity drew Jisung’s eyes to where the light stopped and was shadowed by the trees towards the end of the garden, and he wondered what lurked just beyond his field of view, but he didn’t wonder too hard.He didn’t believe in ghosts or monsters or any of that shit, but somehow he was still scared of them. He literally slept with a nightlight until he was fifteen years old. Laugh if you want, but the dark is scary. His brain couldn’t help but come up with what fictitious horrors could possibly be lurking in the shadows. 

Despite him not believing however, the longer he stared, the more he _swore_ he could see-

“Everything okay?”

Jisung will deny it if he is asked, but the second he heard the voice coming from behind him, he screamed and almost had a heart attack. 

Chan would also deny accidentally scaring the shit out of Jisung out of respect for his future friend, but make no mistake: it _did_ happen and it _was_ embarrassing. Chan had never heard a more high pitched scream from another human being before.

“Don’t do that!” Jisung exclaimed, clutching his heart.

“Sorry,” Chan laughed, losing balance slightly as he tried to lean on the porch railing. “So… how are you doing?”

“Uh… okay, I think,” Jisung replied with a shrug, recovering quickly. “I really can’t tell.”

“Well everyone seems to really like you.” Chan’s cheeks were quite flushed so he was probably pretty drunk, but he still seemed like he had his shit together. “Especially Minho.”

That really caught Jisung’s attention. He tried to hide his smile from Chan, but he couldn’t help it. The idea of Minho liking him made him so happy but he wasn’t completely sure why.

“Let’s go inside, huh? It’s cold out here.” Chan put an arm around Jisung’s shoulders. As if on cue, Jisung shivered, the cold air suddenly hitting him as he felt himself sobering up a little. He let Chan escort him back inside, but Jisung failed to notice how the older boy looked back over his shoulder right into the darkness, maybe making sure there was nothing there, or maybe making sure whatever was in there stayed away. Jisung wouldn’t know the real reason Chan wanted him to come back inside for quite some time but it definitely wasn’t because it was cold.

  
  
  
  
  
  


The rest of the night went pretty much without incident. Well, kind of. Jisung wasn’t one of the people who threw up so he considered that a pretty successful night. He didn’t exactly remember a lot, not because he blacked out but because there was just so much happening so here’s a basic summary:

Felix tried to slide down the stair railing like Mary Poppins and nearly broke his own neck (as well as Woojin’s when he fell back off the stairs on top of him)

Then, a group of girls tried to trick Hyunjin into playing a game that would end in one of them getting to kiss him but it backfired and ended with Changbin and Felix being locked in a closet together and Jeongin, who Jisung learned was Hyunjin’s little brother, was the one who walked in on them after Seungmin told him to go unlock it, an evil smile on his face. Hyunjin yelled at Seungmin for traumatising his brother but Seungmin just laughed. 

Don’t ask what Changlix were doing. Don’t. It was disgusting and that’s how Jisung worked out they were slightly more than just best friends, as if that wasn’t already quite clear.

Jisung learned the hard way that Minho hadn’t been lying and Chan and Hyunjin were both extremely cuddly drunks when they surgically attached themselves to him for at least an hour somewhere between 2am and 3am. Minho tried to save him but it was no use.

When Woojin managed to pry Chan away from him, dragging him away, Minho sat down beside Jisung, remarking about the fact that Hyunjin had actually fallen asleep while still clinging to him. Then he leapt up and left the room, returning with the brother Jisung had seen earlier but hadn’t actually spoken to.

“This is Jeongin. You’ve met, right?” Minho had said. It was then that Jeongin was notified that he was actually bait and then Minho woke Hyunjin up. The entire situation was a mess but it somehow ended with Jisung being freed and Jeongin being trapped by Hyunjin’s hugs instead, fixing Minho with the stare of a betrayed puppy. 

“I trusted you,” he had cried as Hyunjin’s limbs curled around him and trapped him in a prison of hugs. He was maybe sixteen or seventeen years old yet he probably had the most aggressive case of babyface Jisung had ever seen. Minho dragged him away, but Jisung was tempted to go back and free him from the jaws of death just because of how adorable he was.

Minho dragged him to another room which was empty and they sat down on the sofa together. The music from the other rooms was muffled through the wall. Then they just talked. About everything and nothing. Minho was incredibly talkative when he was drunk, like all the words he didn’t say when he was sober built up and overflowed the second his inhibitions were lowered. 

Jisung the entire time wondered how soon was too soon to know whether you had a crush on someone. It was probably too soon but Minho was so cute. Seriously so cute. Jisung felt unworthy of being in his presence. Not only that though, Minho was funny too. There were certain points during the night that Jisung couldn’t actually breathe because he was laughing so hard. To make things even better, Jisung was the one making Minho laugh a lot of the time too, which he was extremely proud that he could do.

To be honest, Jisung thought they were just talking and that’s why he felt so comfortable with it. He wouldn’t know till months down the line just how important these first few interactions would be to Minho. He barely spoke most of the time so the fact that he couldn’t shut up with Jisung meant everything.

Jisung was glad he came, even if he passed out somewhere around 4:30am and a lot of details about the night were blurry. He fell asleep right on that sofa beside Minho since they’d fallen into a comfortable silence after talking for so long. Minho drifted off first, and Jisung looked over at him, sleep weighing his eyelids down. He thought about everything that had happened and how surreal it all felt. He felt like he was in a movie or something. He also thought about how he’d come tonight already liking Minho a lot, and his beginnings-of-a-crush had only grown in the past few hours. Minho was funny and shy and had an air of intelligence about him that was pretty rare. Some people just _feel_ smart. He was also really really nice to look at too, which certainly didn’t hurt things. Jisung wondered what would happen with Minho. It seemed like the other boy liked him too on some level which was pretty cool. He wouldn’t keep talking to him if he didn’t like him, right? Maybe not like _that_ but he still had to at least like him platonically.

He’d just have to wait and see.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really didn’t mean for this to take so long but it’s quite a bit longer so hopefully that makes up for it.
> 
> I feel like this chapter is a mess but then again so are parties like this. I’ve seen people act like this before and it’s incredibly funny and also incredibly annoying.


	5. sleepy towns and cemeteries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “he casts the kind of glow only a city knows”
> 
> The song rec for this chapter is Sleepy Towns and Cemeteries by Nicole Dollanganger. 
> 
> Definitely a Minho song. Minho is a sad boi who just wants a boyfriend. Pls send hugs bc he needs them.

  
  
  


Jisung cracked his eyes open, his brain taking a few seconds to adjust. He didn’t recognise where he was until it clicked a few seconds later and then he was extremely aware of a presence beside him

“Hey. How do you feel?” Minho was sitting to his left, already awake, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. 

Jisung yawned, covering his mouth with his hand. “Not that bad,” he answered. “Just tired.”

“You can drink a lot, dude. I’m impressed,” Minho said with a lopsided smile. “I was gonna head out but I didn’t wanna leave you by yourself. You wanna come?”

“Uh, sure…” Jisung replied shyly as Minho stood up, allowing the older boy to pull him up. “What about everyone else?” 

“They won’t be awake for hours. We can come back later.”

Looking around at all the people still sleeping, Jisung was conscious of just how messy the room was. He didn’t even want to think about what state the rest of the house was in. 

“Okay then.” He allowed Minho to take his hand and lead him out of the room, taking care to not step on anyone or wake them up.

  
  
  
  
  
  


It was so fucking cold outside holy shit. Jisung swore he felt his soul leave his body the second the front door of Hyunjin’s house was opened. 

The town was so quiet. Not like normal quietness. A small town early in the morning tended to be quiet anyway, but in his ever so slightly hungover state, his senses felt like they were dialed up to eleven and were overwhelming him. That’s why he was hyper aware of the total silence. 

Yes,  _ total silence. _

Not a single sound. No dogs barking. No people walking. No car alarms. Not a single bird. Not even the wind. Nothing except the sound of his footsteps and Minho’s footsteps and their quiet conversation. Imagine that for a second. Imagine the sound of nothing at all. Weird, right? It’s not the most important detail in the world, but it’s still strange and it creeped Jisung out a little but he just ignored it. It would, however, become much more important later on and Jisung would think back to this day and question how on earth he didn’t realize what was really going on. 

At the risk of sounding too vague and menacing, here’s a pretty important piece of information that he is unaware of: the birds stopped singing about three years ago in October but the dogs stopped barking and the cats stopped wandering the streets the very second Jisung and his family arrived in town. Some people say animals can sense things that humans can’t. Perhaps they knew what was going to happen.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


They must’ve walked for at least ten minutes, reaching the town centre again. 

Once again, dead silence. The shops were open but no one walked on the streets. It was as if the town ran on clockwork and someone just forgot to wind it up. All the parts were there but none of them were running.

“Isnt this a bit weird?” Jisung whispered to Minho, looking around them anxiously, very much awake now.

“What’s weird?” Minho was so nonchalant in his response.

“Where is everyone?” Jisung asked. 

“Oh… uh… I don’t know. I guess its just quiet in the morning.” Jisung didn’t fail to notice how awkward Minho suddenly became, like he didn’t know how to answer. “We’re here.”

They’d stopped in front of a cafe even smaller than the one from a few days ago with peeling paint on the front door and a large red  _ open _ sign hanging in the window.   
  


Minho pushed the door open, the tiny bell above chiming. Jisung followed close behind, very much aware that he had absolutely no money on him.

There weren’t many people inside. A couple of elderly people here and there but no one even close to their age.

The second they entered, the entire room fell silent and everyone inside stared right at them.

Jisung swallowed nervously. He really didn’t like that. He felt like he was being pranked. It was actually getting to be a little scary now.

Minho, perhaps sensing Jisung’s nerves, grabbed his hand and pulled him over to a table in the corner.

“Don’t worry so much,” Minho told him quietly, letting go of his hand. “You’re doing okay, it’s not you. Listen, they were looking at me too. Don’t worry about it.”

That calmed Jisung a little. If you live in a small town, perhaps you know about this. The same might be true in cities too, but Minho wouldn’t know. He doesn’t live in a city. Anyway, in small towns, old people tend to not be too kind to teenagers. Whenever they spot a teenager in public, that teenager is met with a death glare even if they aren’t doing anything wrong. Old people tend to assume the worst of you if you are a teen even if all you’re doing is breathing. It doesn’t make sense but neither do old people. This has been a PSA. Ban all old people.

“It’s a bit early for you to be up, isn’t it Minho?” A waitress walked over, putting two menus down in front of them. She was short with a pretty face, blue hair and a confident smile. 

“Hey Jimin.” Minho smiled at her. “Is it just you in today?”

“Well, I was  _ supposed _ to have help from Jae but he just didn’t show up today so…” she gave a nonchalant shrug, leaning on the table. “Hey, you’re the new kid, right?”

She turned to Jisung and he smiled at her.

“Yeah. I’m Jisung.” He stood up and held out a hand for her to shake. She looked surprised at first, but quickly smiled.

“I like you, Jisung. Jimin. Nice to meet you,” she said, shaking his hand. “Don’t scare him off, Minho. He’s good for you. I can tell.”

Jisung sat back down and grinned as Minho scowled at her, turning bright red.

“Jae works here too?” He asked Minho, who nodded, staring down at the menu. 

“I have no idea how he has time to do everything. He has two jobs, school plus all the YouTube shit…” Minho mumbled, half talking to himself.

“YouTube?” Jisung asked, feeling lost.

“Oh shit, did I not tell you?” Minho looked up at him, putting the menu down and pulling his phone out of his pocket. He spent a few seconds typing in silence and then waiting for the page to load before he showed Jisung what he’d been doing. “So Jae has a channel with Seungmin’s brother and two other guys. You met Wonpil, right?”

Jisung started at the screen and saw a channel called  _ Day6.  _ By the looks of the thumbnails of the videos, Day6 were a band and they had nearly a million subscribers. 

“So Wonpil  _ is  _ Seungmin’s brother?” Jisung peered at the thumbnails, scrolling through the videos. 

“Yep. They look identical like there’s literally no universe where they aren’t related. They’re basically twins.” Minho peered at his phone too. “They’re actually really good. I can’t listen to my brother’s music but I can’t say the same for Seungmin. He’s literally their biggest fan. It’s cute. You should check them out.”

“Cool. I definitely will,” Jisung promised and not in the way people usually promise to listen to music recommendations. You know when you tell someone “hey I know a band I genuinely think you’ll like!” and their reply is “oh cool, I’ll check them out!” but then they never ever do? Yeah Jisung ain’t about that life. He stands firmly by the philosophy that if someone tells him that they think something is really good and they’d like him to check it out, he will do everything he can to actually check it out because it could easily be very important to them. 

They fell into silence again, comfortable as it always had been since they’d met. Jisung thumbed through the menu in front of him, seeing the words but not really reading them, finally looking up at Minho and breaking that silence.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Minho looked right at him when he asked and nodded, smiling widely. “And like… I don’t want you to take this the wrong way.”

“Oh god,“ Minho said jokingly, anticipating what Jisung might say next.

“This is gonna sound so mean, but I don’t want it to,” Jisung began. “So if your brother is so famous, then why are you…”

“Completely friendless?” Minho finished quickly, raising his eyebrow, when Jisung trailed off.

“Alright don’t lie to me. I’ve met all your friends. You have more than I’ve ever had in my entire life,” Jisung pointed out. “You just seem like… I don’t know…”

“I think I get what you mean,” Minho admitted. “When people worked out who my brother was, I had a lot of people trying to be my friend. But then when they realized I wasn’t gonna give them what they wanted, they all went back to pretending I didn’t exist.” 

Minho let out a heavy sigh after he’d finished speaking, playing with the fork sitting to his left.

He left out all the parts where he intentionally isolated himself because Jisung didn’t need to know all that. No need to burden the new kid. He’d probably done that enough already anyway. Not like anyone else knew either so why bother telling someone now? 

“What if I’m like that?” Jisung asked, leaning forward on his hands. His tone was teasing because he’d noticed Minho’s sudden quietness and tried to change the subject slightly, or at the very least keep the conversation moving forwards. “You don’t even know me.”

“Are you?” Minho smiled and leaned forwards, maintaining complete eye contact. Jisung felt his face heat up under Minho’s burning gaze but he didn’t look away. “Are you like that, Jisung?”

Any words that Jisung might’ve planned to say were immediately forgotten the second Minho said his name. He could feel his heartbeat in his ears. A boy he’d just met shouldn’t already have this effect on him but he did.

“Nah…” Minho leaned back in his seat, eyes running up and down Jisung, trying to hide his smile. “I can always tell when someone’s lying to me and you’re not. I feel like you’re bad at lying anyway.”

“Hey! I could be amazing at lying. You don’t know,” Jisung fired back defensively, but all Minho did was laugh with a fondness it was probably too early for him to have. 

“Alright,” he said, slouching back in his seat, eyes running up and down the boy in front of him, causing him to blush furiously.   
  


He seemed so cool on the outside. On the inside, he was dying. He wondered what the fuck Jisung was even doing here. With him. Sure, he’d asked him to come but saying Jisung was out of his league was a massive understatement. He’d watched him all last night and he was just such a natural conversationalist. Jisung was so good at talking. It was perhaps a weird thing to notice about someone, but Minho had been jealous of people who were social butterflies for his entire life. He was friends with  _ Chan _ for fucks sake. That boy was a magnet for friends. He knew everyone and everyone loved him. And now here came Jisung. Completely new in town and he had already charmed everyone Minho knew. He fit in their group so well, like he was always meant to be there. He was the missing piece no one even knew had been missing, Minho was calling it now. Sure, Woojin would need some time to trust him but it was inevitable that it would happen.

Normally Minho just felt jealousy, but not now. He felt something different. Mostly confusion, panic and a weird feeling in his stomach. Good weird. Very butterfly-like. He felt good around Jisung. He liked feeling good. It was nice. It had been a while since he’d felt good. He hoped Jisung would stick around. He really did. 

Spoiler alert: Jisung definitely would.   
  
  


  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully this is good. I really can’t tell tbh. 
> 
> Alright so there’s like one more chapter before the boys head back to school. That’s when shit really starts to get weird so saddle up. 
> 
> Happy spooky season btw. Hope y’all like Halloween chapters bc you’re getting them at some point.


	6. like that sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW//: verbal abuse. it’s not very severe but if you aren’t okay with reading stuff like that, please don’t read it.
> 
> ~~~~~~
> 
> The song for this chapter is Like That Sun by Day6 bc Day6 are gods and the song is the biggest bop. I love Day6 if that wasn’t clear.

_ July _

…..

  
  
  


Jisung kept his promise to Minho and checked out Day6. It wasn’t long till he’d downloaded every song they’d ever come out with. They had so many and they sounded so professional that Jisung literally couldn’t believe that high school students had managed to accomplish this. They seemed to have songs for literally every occasion too. His favorite right now (it changed basically every day, that’s how serious he was about this band) was  _ Like That Sun _ . Certain songs just gave him such a good feeling and this one filled him with an energy and a happiness that could only come from summer. It was a feeling of optimism and hope and light. It made Jisung feel so excited about his friends and what the future held for him.

Aside from having bop after bop, the music helped distract Jisung from other things. He didn’t like being by himself I’m this house in utter silence. His parents were out a lot and Brian had been hanging out with Jae and the other members of the band so often that on the odd occasion that Jisung wasn’t out with Minho or someone else, he was completely alone at home. He was starting to reconsider his non-belief in ghosts. This house was weird. Jisung justified the weird noises as the house being old, but it really wasn’t. It had been built in the 50s at the earliest. There was no way it could be older than that. Not to mention that the age of the house absolutely didn’t explain that thing that sometimes happens when you glance at the metal of the shower or in a mirror or into the darkness of a room and swear you see a figure standing there. There’s never a figure actually there but you get scared anyway. That had been happening to Jisung a lot and that would be understandable if he were someone who was naturally paranoid, but he wasn’t. He scared very easily, but he wasn’t paranoid. 

He just tried to ignore it and distract himself by blasting music (stan Day6) and wasting hours looking at tweets from people he didn’t know and didn’t like. Stan Twitter was scary. 

  
  
  
  


Minho: hey dude

Minho: dude

Minho: dude

Minho: dued

Minho: dude

Minho: dude 

Minho: stop ignoring meeeeee :(:(:(:(:(

Jisung: sorry I was doing a thing what’s up 

Minho: what were you doing 

Jisung: stanning Day6 wbu

Minho: omg really????? 

Jisung: they are,,,, so good

Minho: you should tell seungmin it’ll make him so happy

Minho: anyways

Minho: you wanna come out tomorrow???

  
  


It was near the end of July by now. Jisung had lived in Sonder Pines for over a month now and he’d spent most of his time with Minho, Chan, Woojin, Changbin, Felix, Seungmin, Hyunjin and Jeongin too.

  
  
  


Jisung: sure where???

Minho: hyunjin has a pool and it’s gonna be hot tomorrow 

Jisung: is he cool if I come?

Minho: dude of course it’s not even a problem just come you’re literally friends with him

Jisung: ok sure i'll come if you walk over with me

Minho: i was going to anyway ;)

  
  
  


That sort of became their thing. Minho didn’t like showing up to places by himself because it made him anxious and Jisung wasn’t comfortable enough with everyone to do that, so they ended going basically everywhere together.

  
  
  


Jisung thought the inside of Hyunjin’s house had been nice but the backyard was a whole different story. By the time they’d gotten there, everyone else had already arrived; Hyunjin and Jeongin (obviously), Seungmin, Chan, Woojin, Changbin and Felix as well as a group of younger girls Jisung didn’t recognise.

“Hey guys!” Chan was the first to notice their arrival, waving over at them from where he and Woojin where sitting together on the sunbeds next to the pool. That was met with chorus of greetings from everyone else.

Minho waved back as Jisung leaned over and asked, “That’s Chan and Hyunjin’s sisters, right?”

He looked at two of the girls, one of who actually looked pretty like Chan and had long, shiny chestnut hair and the other who was clearly related to Hyunjin and had her black hair tied into braids.

“Yeah, that’s Chaeryeong and Yeji. The other three are Ryujin, Lia and that’s Yuna. She’s Seungmin’s sister.”

Minho pointed at a girl with baby pink hair, another girl with long black hair in a ponytail and the last girl, who had the same cherry red hair as Seungmin did.

“I didn’t know Seungmin had a sister,” Jisung remarked. Yuna didn’t look like Seungmin in the same way Wonpil did, but they had the same sweet, upturned smiles. None of the girls could be older than ten and they were all extremely cute.

“He’s pretty private about… well basically everything,” Minho replied. “They’re cute though. She dyed her hair that colour so she could be the same as him.”

“Aww.” Jisung looked at them screaming and splashing each other in the shallow end of the pool.

“Careful, you two,” Chan called over to his sister as Ryujin chased her around the side of the pool. “It’s slippy. Don’t want you to fall.”

Jisung had already been suspicious but this confirmed it. Chan had major dad energy.

“Are you two gonna come over or are you gonna keep scheming in the corner?” Felix yelled from the deep end of the pool, leaning on the side, his head resting on his arms. 

Jisung grabbed Minho’s hand and pulled him over, deciding to take the lead.

“Hey.” Seungmin gave them both a little wave from where he was perched on the edge of the pool, legs dangling in the water, squinting in the sunlight.

“How you doing today?” Jisung asked, throwing his stuff down on a sunbed next to the one Chan and Woojin were sitting on, Minho doing the same.

“Not too bad,” Seungmin answered. 

“My eyes are melting!” Changbin whined, floating at the end of the pool like he was dead. This was presumably Changbin speak for “wow it sure is hot today”.

“Bro, just take them out then,” Felix suggested, splashing Changbin and causing him to cough. 

“His eyes?!” Hyunjin, who was right by them alongside Jeongin, sounded positively horrified.

“Dude. Try and tell me this doesn’t make sense. If your eyes are melting, just remove them. Then it won’t bother you.” Felix said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I’m very worried for you,” Chan called over to them. “Binnie, love, please don’t remove your eyes.”

“Fine, mom,” Changbin sounded disappointed and Jisung wasn’t sure if he should be concerned.

“Hey, you coming?” Jisung turned round at the sound of Minho’s voice and nearly choked. 

Now listen here. Jisung isn’t a shallow person. He’s not. But Minho had taken his shirt off in the time Jisung had turned around and he had forgotten how to breath. By now he’d accepted the fact that he had a crush on him. Like a  _ really big one _ .

“Uh…” Jisung’s brain had melted like Changbin’s eyes (allegedly) and he couldn’t string two words together. Minho folded his arms, raising an eyebrow.

“Something you’d like to say?” He asked, stepping closer to Jisung, making the younger boy’s face heat up.

“No!” Jisung blurted out immediately, taking a tiny step back. Minho’s lips curled into a smile, perfectly aware of what he was doing. 

“Shame,” he muttered, intentionally running his eyes up and down Jisung’s body, before walking past him.

Jisung was about five seconds away from screeching in front of everyone.

“Jisung hurry up!” Changbin yelled over at him.

Trying to regain his composure (to little success), Jisung pulled his shirt over his head and threw it down on the sunbed before kicking his shoes off.

“Hell yeah, Jisung’s hot!” He heard Hyunjin yell as he was met with a chorus of wolf whistles.

“Like we didn’t already know that,” Felix yelled back at him. Jisung folded his arms to cover himself as he turned around to respond to them when he saw Minho staring at him with very much the same look  _ he’d  _ just had while looking at  _ him. _

“Something  _ you’d _ like to say?” He asked, strolling over to Minho, who was standing by the edge of the pool. Now was his chance to get Minho back.

Minho didn’t really answer. He just sort of stood there dumbly opening and closing his mouth. Jisung was  _ really really good looking. What the fuck. This isn’t allowed. _

Jisung smiled smugly at him, believing he’d won this round of cringeworthy flirting. Looking Minho up and down, just as Minho had done to him, he said, “What a  _ shame.  _ Look at you. Oh how the tables have tabled-  _ what the fuck! _ ”

Minho shoved Jisung into the pool. That’s what happened there. He probably deserved it too. 

Seungmin stared straight into a camera that wasn’t there with an expression that screamed something along the lines of  _ I’m surrounded by clowns  _ and _ I hope the next meteor that heads for earth actually hits it _ , a habit he’d developed a lot considering who he was friends with, as he was soaked by Jisung falling in right beside where he was sitting.

“Seems about right,” he muttered to himself, blowing the wet strands of hair out of his face.

“You fucker!” Jisung yelled as he resurfaced, before jumping in surprise as Felix grabbed him from behind.

“Don’t be fucking  _ rude _ , Minho,” Felix exclaimed in his best Kim Kardashian voice. This is a reference that is merely obtained from meme culture. Felix has no particular interest in reality tv stars, but he perfectly respects anyone who does. He just watches a lot of vines, despite the app having been dead for a long time by now.

Minho just smirked at them, taking a few steps back before running and jumping with the intention to splash them all, something he definitely achieved. 

“Here it comes,” was all Seungmin said, sighing heavily as a second wave of water hit him. He’d hoped to not get too wet today. He should’ve known better than to think that was possible when he was surrounded by demons. 

“Bastard.” Felix glared at Minho when he resurfaced, having latched himself onto Jisung like a parasite, but like a cute parasite. Okay never mind that’s a bad simile. Ignore that.

“Seungminnie,” Hyunjin whined, wading over to him, carrying Jeongin on his back. “Come in, I miss you.”

“This is gross. I’m out.” Jeongin took on look at the two of them and hopped off his brother’s back to spare his poor eyes from their disgusting and blatant flirting.

Hyunjin lay his hands on Seungmin’s thighs, pouting at him. The younger boy turned red and nearly slapped Hyunjin right then and there.

“Don’t touch me you monster,” he complained, trying to pry Hyunjin’s slimy hands off him to little success.

“Oh god, not this shit again,” Changbin said not very quietly from where he, Minho and Felix were playing with the girls, catching sight of Seungjin being gross.

“Channie!” Chaeryeong yelled from where she sat on Felix’s shoulders. “Binnie said a bad word!”

“Binnie is gonna catch these hands if he does it again,” Chan called back, glaring at Changbin from a distance.

“Bro. Why would you rat me out to mom like that?” Changbin clutched his heart, pretending to fall over from the betrayal. 

Hyunjin threw his arms around Seungmin’s waist and slowly edged him in the pool. Seungmin had resigned to his fate as he was dragged into the freezing depths (it was pretty warm), allowing himself to be dragged around by Hyunjin like a corpse.

“Aren’t you gonna come in, Chan?” Hyunjin called over as he dragged the seemingly lifeless Seungmin behind him.

Chan allowed Woojin to climb over and sit behind him, his arms wrapping around his waist, as he leaned back against his boyfriend’s chest happily and shook his head.

“Look how pale he is,” Minho pointed out and Chan scowled. “He’ll burst into flames if he’s in the sun for longer than five seconds.”

“I’d say that’s rude but it’s literally true so I can’t. I’m legitimately a vampire,” Chan said with a shrug. Woojin smiled as he watched him talk, before kissing his cheek, causing Chan to smile wider than Jisung had ever seen him smile before. The kind of smile where his eyes closed and you could see his dimples. 

Jisung always liked how Woojin was with Chan. He was just so gentle. It was so easy to tell how much he loved him just by how he acted around him. Woojin was the living embodiment of the  _ get you someone who looks at you the way  _ _____  _ looks at  _ ____ meme. 

“God, they’re so cute,” he said more to himself than anyone else.

“It’s so gross,” Jeongin said, having materialized beside him, making a face of disgust. “Its like watching my parents.”

“Do you do that often?” Jisung teased and Jeongin scowled at him.

“That would involve them actually being home,” he joked back, but the joke fell flat and just came off as pretty dark. “Anyway, no I fucking do not. Chan and Woojin may as well be my mom and dad. They’ve literally been together for so long, even before they were officially dating.”

“I think I must’ve said something to Woojin. I don’t know. He really doesn’t seem to like me,” Jisung confessed.

“Why? Dude, relax. You’re cool,” Jeongin said with a shrug.

“What we talking about?” Hyunjin half-swam, half-walked over to them, having let Seungmin have his freedom.

“Jisung is freaked out because he thinks Woojin hates him or something,” Jeongin told him immediately, and Jisung just stared at him in shock.

“Don’t tell people, dude!” He protested, splashing Jeongin, who just smiled smugly at him.

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Hyunjin threw an arm around Jisung’s shoulders. “He’s like that with everyone.”

“I mean, at first I didn’t question it, but like, I’ve been here for a while now and I just feel like he doesn’t trust me at all.” Jisung tried not to let on how much it actually bothered him. Woojin seemed really cool, and Jisung had this weird desire to get him to like him. He and Chan really did have big parent energy and he just didn’t want to let them down, especially since Chan had been so sweet to him since literally the second he got here.

“Give him some time, dude.” Hyunjin squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. “It’ll be fine.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_ Early August _

_ …. _

  
  


It was a hot day in Sonder Pines. The kind of day that was so hot that you could feel your clothes sticking to your skin and standing outside for longer than thirty seconds made you feel like you were gonna faint. The kind where you swear the sun has some sort of vendetta against you specifically because the heat beating you down feels like the fiery sky orb is glaring daggers at you.   
  
Jisung didn’t mind though. The cafe had air conditioning, even if it didn’t work the best and Woojin and Jae made sure they were all supplied with cold drinks so they didn’t actually die. It wasn’t so bad.    
  
Plus he was with his friends. That was pretty cool.

Right now, Jisung was with Seungmin, the two of them having draped themselves over the seats of the booth they were in. The heat of the sun had evaporated whatever energy they might’ve normally had. Hyunjin especially, as the boy in question was fast asleep and had been for almost an hour, his head in Seungmin’s lap and his long noodle legs stretched out over Jisung’s legs.

“Why’s he so tired?” Jisung asked. 

Hyunjin made a humming noise in his sleep, shifting his head in Seungmin’s lap.

“He doesn’t sleep well when it’s too hot.” As Seungmin spoke, he ran his fingers through Hyunjin’s soft hair, completely transfixed on him. It made Jisung a little sad to see how completely devoted to Hyunjin Seungmin clearly was. It must hurt to be that visibly in love with someone and not be able to be with them.

“How long have you been friends?” Jisung noticed Seungmin’s eyes visibly lit up as soon as he asked the question.

“Since second grade,” Seungmin told him with a proud look on his face. “I was by myself and he ran up to me and told me that we were friends now. I wasn’t gonna say no to someone who actually wanted to be friends with me and it just sort of stuck.”

They fell into a sort of comfortable silence while they waited for the others to arrive.

Seungmin broke the silence by saying, “Hey, I need to talk to you about something.”

Yikes. Nothing good ever came from  _ “we need to talk”. _

“Don’t worry it’s nothing bad,” He added.

Okay, never mind.

“So I heard you were worried about Woojin,” Seungmin said. “I just wanted to tell you that it’s not your fault. He has a really hard time trusting people and for good reason. I can’t tell you why because it's not my place, but I still need to warn you about some stuff.”

Seungmin beckoned for him to move closer, so he moved further up the booth, care to not wake Hyunjin.   
  


“So this might not even happen, but there’s a chance it also might so I just wanna be careful,” Seungmin began, continuing to run his hands through Hyunjin’s hair, his expression suddenly grim. “Look, some pretty bad shit has happened to Chan in the past and he was one of the first real friends Woojin ever had. They go so far back I’m not even sure I’d even know where to start with explaining. Anyway, Chan and Woojin are really popular, which means nearly everyone loves them. Unfortunately, that also means there are people who don’t.”

Seungmin stopped, looking at him with eyes that were almost pleading.

“Jisung.” His voice wavered, so quiet he was nearly whispering. His eyes looked like they were slightly damp too. “Something happened a while ago. To Chan. The people who don’t like him and Woojin spread so many rumours that to this day, there are still people who don’t actually know what happened. I can’t tell you what it is, and you wouldn’t believe me if I did, but just  _ promise me _ that no matter what you hear, you won’t believe it. Please. Chan and Woojin- they’re family. There’s very few people I love as much as I love them. You’re one of us now and I trust you and I just need you to know that  _ nothing _ anyone tells you is true. No one knows anything except Chan, me, Felix and the football team. People seem to really have it in for Chan in particular and I don’t know why because he’s one of the best people I know. I know how people at that school behave better than a lot of people and they’re gonna try and turn you against some of us, but I just need to know that you trust us.”

Jisung stared at Seungmin for a few seconds after he’d finished talking. He was slightly taken aback. Whatever he’d been expecting to come out of Seungmin’s mouth, that hadn’t been it. There was so much to unpack there. 

Seungmin had asked about him trusting  _ them _ , not the other way around. It sounded like he was used to people not believing what he said and that sucked. It really sucked because Seungmin was so genuine and kind. He had a really comforting energy surrounding him. The worst thing he did to people was tease them. Jeongin in particular was someone he messed with a lot, but it was clearly done because Seungmin loved him. 

Jisung’s mind went back to one of the first things Minho had ever told him about Seungmin. He was liked by people at school but he was still the target of bullies because of Hyunjin. It seemed like Hyunjin was at the top of the food chain and he was somehow completely unaware of it.

Seungmin had also said that  _ he  _ was  _ one of them _ . That was the one thing he’d said that had been positive. He was part of their group. They liked him. The very idea filled Jisung’s stomach with butterflies. He couldn’t see himself drifting away from them any time soon as they’d already spent so much time together, but also he didn’t really have anywhere to drift  _ to _ , not that he was even remotely close to wanting to.

But lastly, something happened to Chan. Jisung wondered if it related to the scar the older boy had on his face. If he was being perfectly honest, he wondered about it every time he saw him, but he kept those thoughts to himself. It was really deep, and after Jisung looked closer, there was another smaller one right under it. It looked like an animal had scratched him but he’d pulled away before it could really get him. It had also completely healed over. It was probably pretty old.

Here’s the thing though. There’s nothing wrong with  _ wondering _ . It’s a perfectly natural thing for human beings to do. We see something we don’t understand, so we think about them and what they could mean. But Jisung was old enough, smart enough and mature enough to know better than to go further than wondering. Scars like that only appeared after something really bad happened and Jisung never wanted to upset Chan. He’d never ask. If Chan wanted to tell him, he would. 

“Oh and…” Seungmin added, looking slightly more reluctant. “You might not even hear anything about Chan or Woojin. I’m just warning you in case you do. But uh…”

He trailed off, like he wasn’t sure about saying what he wanted to say.

“What is it?” Jisung tried to gently push him to say it.

“Well… I really don’t want to sound selfish here but…” Seungmin bit his lip like he was trying to hold back tears. “Sometimes people can say stuff about me too. Quite a lot. I manage to ignore it most of the time but I just hope you trust me enough to not believe any of it.”

Seungmin seemed like the type to pretend he wasn’t hurt by things even when he was. He wasn’t the most emotive person in the world so Jisung had a tough time getting a read on him initially, but he seemed to feel everything very strongly even if he didn’t show it. Jisung didn’t know what Seungmin went through (he would come to know in time though) but it obviously hurt him and he tried to pretend it didn’t.

“Dude,” he replied, looking at Seungmin like he was crazy. “How is that selfish? We’re friends aren’t we?”

He looked at Seungmin expectantly, waiting for the boy to nod, which he did eventually.

“So,” Jisung continued. “Why would I listen to people I don’t even know when I know what kind of person you are from being around you? Don’t worry about it. Of course I trust you.”

Seungmin smiled gratefully, eyes shining with tears, clenching his jaw as he tried not to cry. Two tears accidentally slipped down his cheeks and he hastily wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

“Thanks, dude.” He sniffed, looking like it meant everything to him.

Jisung was quite right about Seungmin. He was a lot more emotional than he let on. His friends were the most important parts of his life and he really hoped to be as close with Jisung as he was with everyone else. The more genuine people he had in his life, the better. 

Not to mention, and this is quite important so don’t forget, that there was so much Seungmin was keeping from Jisung. So much he couldn’t ever tell him. He felt awful about it and he didn’t think he deserved Jisung caring about him because of it but Jisung did anyway. Seungmin felt guilt constantly however telling Jisung would only put him in danger. 

But more on that later.

Hyunjin stirred in Seungmin’s lap, opening his bleary eyes, rubbing them with his hands and yawning as he sat up.

“Where is everyone else?” He asked, blinking sleepily and looking around, his hair a fluffy mess.

“Chan and Woojin went out with Chaeryeong and Berry a while ago,” Jisung told him. “And Minho got called home by his mom.”

“Last time I checked Jeongin was on his way with Changbin and Felix so they might be dead. I don’t know,” Seungmin said with a shrug. Hyunjin looked at him, frowning.

“Have you been crying?” He caressed Seungmin’s cheek like it was made of glass, sitting too close to him for it to be platonic, scanning the younger boy’s face with concerned eyes.

Seungmin wondered how Hyunjin didn’t realise what he was doing to him. 

“It’s just the heat,” he lied, leaning into his touch and closing his eyes. He couldn’t help it.

It was in Jisung’s nature to make a joke whenever he felt awkward, and oh boy did he feel awkward, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Something about the look in Seungmin’s eyes was just heartbreaking. He looked like he’d resigned to the fact that Hyunjin would never ever love him, which he had. And Hyunjin held Seungmin’s face in his hands as if he were holding everything that mattered to him. Jisung couldn’t believe that Seungmin didn’t see how head over heels Hyunjin was for him. 

Maybe he did see it. Maybe he was just scared. 

Minho came to Jisung’s mind.

  
  


  
  
  
  


_ Late August _

_ …..  _

  
  
  
  
  


There was a single day of rain that summer, and when it rained, it really rained. 

It was the first time Minho invited him over. It would consequently be one of the last times Jisung would be invited over but not because of anything he did.

It’s easier to understand if you just keep reading.

  
  
  


Jisung learned pretty fast that Minho’s home life was… well it was complicated. He finally got some insight into why Minho was the way he was and it really hurt.

He’d been with Minho and the two of them had been lying on his bed, not doing much aside from talking. They did that a lot. Jisung found he could talk to Minho for hours about absolutely nothing. Sometimes they didn’t even need to talk though. They were just comfortable with each other.

They’d both been under the impression that they were alone since Minho had said his mom was basically always out during the day but when the two of them had heard a door downstairs open, followed by footsteps coming quickly up the stairs, they both realised they’d been wrong.

“Shit.” Minho leapt up, an expression of fear evident on his face. “Fuck! She’s supposed to be out. You need to hide.”

“What? Minho, it can't be that big a deal-“ Jisung began but Minho grabbed his arm and began pushing him, like he was trying to force him under the bed.

“Hide right now. I promise I’ll explain later. Please, Sung. She’ll kill me.” The look on Minho’s face had been so urgent and the footsteps were basically outside the door by now so Jisung did as he asked and in just enough time because no sooner had he crawled under Minho’s bed, the door opened a pair of feet wearing heels entered the room.

“What was the noise up here for?” A strict sounding female voice came from the woman who had entered, presumably Minho’s mom. “I thought I told you to stay quiet.”

Jisung felt so uncomfortable. He moved as far back as he could get under there until his back was pressed flat against the wall. All he could do was sit there and listen to them talk.

“It was nothing, mom.” 

Okay so it was definitely his mom then. 

“More lies. I swear it never stops with you.”

“I’m not lying. What do you expect me to say?”

“I don’t expect anything from you anymore and you damn well know that.”

“Why are you mad? I haven’t done anything.”

“You very rarely do anything. That’s the problem.”

“What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t even know you were here. What, I’m not allowed to make noise anymore?”

“Do  _ not _ speak to me like that, young man. Don’t make me remind you what will happen if you keep talking me like that.”

The tone in the room changed immediately from tense to downright stiflingly awkward. Minho seemed to fall silent.

A few seconds passed.

“Sorry…”

Minho sounded so beaten down, as if this was something he experienced consistently.

“So you keep claiming,” his mother replied with the same cold tone. “One of these days maybe you’ll mean it.”

“I always mean it.”

Minho’s voice was as quiet and shaky as it had been before.

“Don’t talk back to me. How many god damn times?”

“Mom, I wasn’t. Please just-“

“For god's sake, just shut up!” Minho’s mom snapped. “You always say the same shit over and over. I only came up here to tell you I’m going out. I don’t give a shit about your apologies.”

_ Silence.  _ Jisung felt like he was suffocating.

“Okay.”

Minho sounded broken. There wasn’t a more accurate word. Just completely broken.

“You know, you’re lucky I even still let you live here. I mean you made everyone else leave, right? The second you then eighteen, that’s it.”

That was the part that stuck with Jisung. Minho had always been pretty cryptic about his family but now there was so much being revealed at once Jisung didn’t know what to do.

He covered his mouth to keep his breathing quiet, knowing now that it would only make things so much worse if he got caught.

Minho didn’t make a sound. He didn’t even try to respond.

There were a few moments of absolutely nothing, and then Jisung watched the feet stalk out of the room as quickly as they’d arrived, slamming the door on the way out.

Jisung heard a heavy sigh from Minho, and then the creaking of the bed springs as he sat down. He didn’t want to come out just yet.

How the fuck did things escalate so quickly? What Jisung had just heard didn’t even sound real. Minho had to live with this?

He felt like crying after what he’d just listened to but it probably wouldn’t help anything. He had no idea what to say.

What was he supposed to do now that he knew this happened?

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


The rain battered down.

  
  
  


Minho watched the rain.

  
  
  


Jisung watched Minho.

  
  
  


“I’d ask if you’re alright…” Jisung traced the lines on the wooden floor of the porch with the tips of his fingers. “...but that seems like a dumb question.”

“It’s fine.” Minho hugged his knees to his chest, leaning his head against the wall behind him. “I’m so beyond used to this shit.”

“Is she…” Jisung looked over to his right, continuing to watch Minho. The older boy had his eyes closed, his long dark eyelashes pressed against the pale skin of his cheeks and the wind blew through the dark waves of his hair. “Is she always like that?”

Minho moved his head slightly in a nod. 

“Dad and Kookie both leaving really 

affected her. I guess it’s my fault or something.”

The silence they settled into was less than comfortable because Jisung had no idea what he was supposed to say to make Minho feel better. The right words wouldn’t come to him. Maybe they just didn’t exist.

“I’m sorry.” Minho’s voice broke the silence. 

“Sorry? What are you sorry for?” Jisung asked.

“Because. All this shit is so heavy and it always scares people away.” Minho said bitterly. “And I really like you. I don’t wanna freak you out.”

Jisung looked at Minho’s face and realised how miserable and scared he really must be, so he stood up, walked over to the edge of the porch and peered over the side, ignoring how wet it made him.

“What are you doing?” Minho asked, looking at him like he was crazy. 

“Just one second,” he told him, walking over to the other side of the porch and peering over. “Hmm, yeah. It’s exactly what I thought.”

He came back over to Minho, planting himself back down beside him.

“What the hell was that?” Minho asked.

“I was just checking if you scared me off. But I’m pretty sure, and please correct me if I’m wrong here, that I’m still here.”

“Oh my  _ god, _ ” Minho hid his face in his hands. “You’re so lame what the fuck.”

Jisung flashed him a lopsided grin.

“That might be true but guess what? I’m not going anywhere, so get ready for more of the worst jokes you’ve ever heard. You’ll be  _ begging _ me to leave then.”

That made Minho smile, so Jisung had accomplished exactly what he’d been trying to do.

“Don’t think that’s true,” Minho muttered. 

They locked eyes for a few seconds and Jisung couldn’t hold back a smile. Minho reached over and stroked the damp hair out of his face, his hand resting on his cheek for a few seconds.

There was a brief moment where they both stared at each other and that was nearly when they kissed for the first time. Nearly. Both boys leaned in slightly, both aware of what they wanted to do yet neither of them did it. They both pulled back, both too unsure to go any further, opting to lace their fingers together and sit in the silence instead, a more comfortable silence this time though.

  
  
  


So as you see, the reason Jisung didn’t return to Minho’s house many times after that, despite the fact that they’d be in each other’s lives for a very long time, was not because of anything Jisung did. It was the fact that he believed, and if Minho knew he’d agree, that the less time Minho had to spend there, the better. It was clear that house was a cage of bad memories and anything Minho could do to not be trapped in there so much, the better.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_ A week before school starts _

.....

  
  


Jisung was pretty sure he’d gotten a handle on Hyunjin’s parties. He’d been to quite a few by now since Hyunjin threw them almost nearly every week.

  
  


Just to be clear, Hyunjin knew how much of a cliche he was. The rich boy with the seemingly perfect life whose almost completely absent parents genuinely believe that throwing money at him can fill the hole in his life they left.

He also knew throwing huge parties every other week to overcompensate for the fact that his home was giant and empty was almost equally cliche, but he couldn’t find it within himself to care.

His parties reminded him of The Great Gatsby, except his Daisy was always in attendance and they weren’t supposed to attract him in the first place because Seungmin would always be there anyway, party or not. They were just to stop the house from seeming so big and empty, at least for a while.

He hoped no one shot him at the end. He really hoped not.

  
  
  
  


Anyway, back to Jisung.

He really was close with everyone by now, but Chan and Minho especially, which is important here.

  
  
  


It was around 2am. A lot of people were in the kitchen making a lot of noise but those who were either too tired or too drunk had congregated in the living room.

“Not to be too cliche...” Minho was sitting beside Jisung on the sofa, leaning against him, his head on his shoulder, and he’d drunk a  _ lot _ . He was really loud when he was drunk, but not in a way that was overbearing. He was just a lot more confident, but it was nice to see.. “I know it’s only been two months or whatever.I just feel like I can talk to you and I’m not used to that feeling.”   
  
Drunk Minho was also very honest. He ordinarily didn’t have much of a filter but it was much worse now.   
  
“And... I don’t really know what I’m doing. I just... I like you a lot and I’m really glad you’re here and I feel like I finally have someone who understands me and we’re friends aren’t we? I was scared it was too early for us to be friends but I trust you way too much already and I think you’re my friend I just don’t know if you think I’m your friend.”   
  
Drunk Minho was also the king of run-on sentences and spoke a lot, a drastic contrast to how he was sober.   
  
“Say something,” Minho said, sitting up and looking anxious now.   
  
Jisung looked at him and just leaned over and hugged him. It was the best he could do because Minho was so clearly lonely. It was so obvious. He basically lived alone. Jisung just wanted to save that lonely boy from his loneliness, if he could.

“You’re already the closest friend I’ve ever had,” Jisung admitted, feeling Minho relax in his hold. It wasn’t saying a lot considering his history with friends, but at the same time it said so much because Minho had already surpassed every old friend jisung had ever had in a much shorter amount of time.

Hugging Minho felt like the only thing Jisung ever wanted to do. He didn’t want to let go. 

Minho closed his eyes, feeling Jisung begin to run his fingers through his hair. He normally didn’t let people hug him, but it was different with Jisung and now that he’d done it, he realised how good it felt to have someone near him.

He accidentally fell asleep but Jisung kept his arms around him, refusing to move. He was perfectly happy right there.

After sitting there for like an hour, Chan wandered in by himself, absolutely  _ hammered _ . Chan was usually pretty responsible with how much he drank but that night, he’d go way further than he normally let himself. Not to the point that he was sick or anything, but it still wasn’t good. Unbeknownst to Jisung, the reason Chan had done this was because of the anxiety he was feeling about what he was about to talk to Jisung about.

“Hey,” he slurred stumbling over and sitting down on the other side of Jisung to where Minho was still sleeping.

“You okay, bro?” Jisung looked at him, a little concerned.

“I just wanna make sure  _ you’re  _ okay,” Chan muttered, leaning his head against the younger boy’s shoulder and closing his eyes, clearly very tired.

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” Jisung welcomed the affection, curling his arm around Chan’s waist and letting the older boy lean on him.

“Because you’re not safe here,” Chan muttered, nuzzling against him. “I just want you to be safe, you know? School is starting really soon too. I just want you to be okay.”

The feeling of comfort Jisung had evaporated. That was a really weird thing to say. He sat up, looking at Chan, still with his arms around him.

“What does that mean?” Jisung asked him. Chan seemed like he was a few seconds away from falling asleep but he still answered. 

“They wanna get rid of you… but it doesn’t work… and I don’t want you to disappear and also I’m really proud of you because no one makes it through the first month usually…” Chan closed his eyes, blinking away the sleep, completely out of it. “Just be careful, sungie.”

  
  
  


In Sonder Pines, friendly advice never goes unpunished. 

Maybe Chan knew what he was doing, but considering everything that would happen as a consequence, there’s no way. No one would willingly do that to themselves, would they?

The truth was, Chan did know what he was doing. He just didn’t understand just how severe the consequences would be. He also hadn’t meant to say so much.

He’d been so worried about not saying anything that he’d ended up saying far too much. 

The reason he was so tired was not because he’d been drinking. It was because there were things in that town that wouldn’t let him sleep. He knew they were there and had for such a long time and they knew he knew they were there and now they knew that he knew about what they wanted to do to Jisung and that he had no intention of letting them get away with what they were planning.

Who is  _ they _ , you ask? That’s a good question. No one is really sure.

Things wouldn’t start to go very very wrong until school started back and there was seven days of summer left.   
  


  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don’t ask why this chapter is so long. Idk what happened.
> 
> So ik chaeryeong isn’t like identical to chan but i think there are similarities there and big brother!chan is too cute. she’s also my baby and I love her and I WILL be projecting through Chan to show my love for her.
> 
> seungmin, wonpil and yuna have all had the same red hair color and they’re also all literal rays of sunshine in their groups. and I don’t need to explain hyunjin and yeji. angels. stan itzy.
> 
> I’m not gonna go heavy with the stuff about Minho’s mom so don’t worry if it bothers you. That’s not what this fic is about, it’s just a subplot. I won’t go too into detail with anything, I just think it’s important to deal with things like this bc real people go through stuff like this. 
> 
> Anyway, spookiness is coming. I got all the happy summer stuff out of the way so get ready to suffer.


	7. a song’s never just sad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is “My Silver Lining” by First Aid Kit.
> 
> idek if anyone is listening to these song recs but I only recommend bops so you’re missing out clowns.

Welcome to Sonder Pines, early September. The schools are due to start back today. Things will be okay for a while, or as okay as they can be in this place, but then after Homecoming things will begin to unravel slowly. Jisung has no idea how many people are watching him.

The first day of school finally rolled around and Jisung had no idea what he was doing. He very rarely did, but more so now than ever. He was so nervous but he was so grateful he actually had a group of people he could rely on to make it a little easier. It was funny to think that not that long ago, he’d given into the idea that he’d have no friends here. Like he’d actually been tempted to intentionally have no friends just to save himself the trouble of even trying and potentially failing.

He and Minho has agreed the night before to walk to school together. Minho had actually agreed to meet him outside his house. But Jisung looked at his phone and saw the messages Minho had left while he’d been asleep and had realised that would no longer be the case.

  
  
  


07:26

Minho: fuck 

Minho: I’m so sorry sungie I totally spaced out and forgot I was supposed to meet you

Minho: fuck I feel like shit. I’m already at school. 

Jisung: don’t worry about it. I’ll just see you there???

Minho: yeah definitely

Minho: I’m really sorry 

Jisung: dude don’t worry about it. You didn’t mean to.

  
  
  


It was pretty weird but Jisung tried not to think too much of it in addition to trying to ignore how nervous he was. He just hauled himself out of bed, got dressed and then dragged himself downstairs.

“What’s up, twink.” Brian came up behind him and ruffled his hair as he was busy tying his shoes. Jisung pulled a face of disgust. 

“Shut up!” He whined, fixing his hair, and by fixing it, he meant just sort of shoving it out of his face. It was too long to do anything else with. 

“Good luck today, okay?” Brian called as he walked away to do something in another room.

“Thanks, you too dude,” Jisung called back. 

When he left his house, the first thing he saw was Chan leaving his house from across the road, Woojin by his side, and he started to wonder whether it was ever possible to see the two of them apart from each other. 

Chan noticed him and waved over at him as they walked over. His sister Chaeryeong was standing in between him and Woojin, holding their hands. 

“Hey, how are you?” Chan called over as they approached one another. 

Jisung shrugged, admitting, “I feel like I’m gonna throw up honestly.”

“I know it seems scary, but you’ll be okay,” Woojin promised him, giving him a soft smile.

“Chaeryeong, this is Jisung. You wanna say hi?” Chan knelt down beside his sister as he spoke, looking at her as if she was the most important thing in the world. She was very cute and Jisung could see the similarities between her and Chan. To be honest, if Woojin and Chan had been a little older and Jisung didn’t know better, he would’ve said she could’ve been their daughter. She was very shy and hid behind Chan a little, causing him to smile fondly at her. “She’s really quiet.”

“That’s alright,” Jisung said, his heart warmed by how much Chan obviously adored his sister.

“Wanna walk with us?” Woojin asked suddenly, and Jisung didn’t answer immediately because he was so surprised Woojin had even been talking to him. “Minho was supposed to meet you, wasn’t he?”

Jisung had no idea how Woojin knew that, but he wasn’t going to turn down an offer to not seem completely alone on his first day, so he gladly accepted.

“Uh, yeah, I’m sure Minho had a reason though,” Jisung replied quickly.

“He does,” Woojin told him, in a way that was so incredibly vague and it didn’t seem like he was going to clarify anything. 

“Minho has a bit of a hard time at school sometimes. He just gets nervous and forgets things. It’s not really our place to explain, it’s sort of his thing but I’m sure you’ll find out soon,” Chan clarified quickly, seeing how confused Jisung was. “Anyway, we should go. You coming?”

Jisung hurried to keep up and walked alongside the three of them. Woojin scooped Chaeryeong off the ground and into his arms so Jisung could walk beside them, much to the younger girl’s delight. She giggled and wrapped her arms around Woojin’s neck and held onto him tightly. 

Maybe it seems weird to some people that Chaeryeong’s brother’s boyfriend is so close with her, or maybe it’s not weird at all, but there’s a good reason why he is and there’s also a multiple reasons why Chan cares about her so much. 

The first reason Chan cares so much is of course just because he’s simply a good person. You do not get to choose your family, but Chan would probably be extremely attached to whoever he’d ended up with as his sibling. Fortunately, Chaeryeong was just as sweet as he was.

The second reason is because this girl is genuinely one of the best people you could ever meet. It would be impossible, if you were someone who experienced authentic human emotions, to not adore her. Her smile is infectious and she seems to glow with what can only be described as rays of pure sunlight. It runs in the family as Chan has a similar effect on people. If there were ever an alternate universe where Chaeryeong was, oh I don’t know, in a band or even a five member Idol group from South Korea, there should be no possible reason why this girl should ever receive any sort of hate or negativity because she genuinely doesn’t have a bad bone in her body and tries so hard to make the people around her feel happy and loved and any attempt to make her feel unhappy or like she’s not exactly as beautiful, both inside and out, as she deserves to feel, would be beyond cruel and vindictive and completely unjustifiable.

The third reason is less pleasant. Chan’s home life isn’t what it seems. He’s not as happy as he pretends to be. People rarely are, but particularly so in this case. There’s a special kind of darkness in that household and Chan already loves the people in his life far too much and will do absolutely anything he possibly can to protect them from being hurt. Something happened to him when he was growing up and it’s something that could easily happen to Chae too, and he can’t live with the concept of anyone going through what he still goes through every single day, so he does everything he can to make her feel loved and important and cared about.

  
  
  
  


It didn’t take long to walk to the elementary school. It had been a while since Jisung had attended elementary school so it was weird being there. 

There were children everywhere. Such is often the case with a school. They tend to have kids in them. Nevertheless, children are ew.

Children on the ground, children in the trees, children in the bushes, children in the walls. So many children.

Chaeryeong began to cry the second they arrived and she got a look at all the people. Chan knelt down beside her, pulling her into his arms. 

“Come on, don’t do that. It’ll all be okay.” Chan hugged her close to him, facing away from the kids so they couldn’t make fun of her, stroking her hair. “You can do this. I promise. It’ll be over before you know it and then I’ll be here to get you, okay?”

Chaeryeong nodded, hiding her face in his neck, trying to stop her tears. A few of the girls Jisung had met earlier in the summer seemed to notice them and ran over. 

“Chaery!” Yuna exclaimed happily, as she hurried over, Yeji right beside her. 

Reminder, because you probably forgot: Yeji is Hyunjin and Jeongin’s little sister. Yuna is Seungmin’s.

Chaeryeong let go of Chan, standing up and wiping her eyes when they approached her with concerned expressions.

“What’s wrong?” Yeji asked, stroking her hair behind her ear.

“Nothing,” Chaeryeong lied, smiling as brightly as she could, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. 

“It’s gonna be fine,” Woojin promised her, ruffling her hair fondly. “You know, I was really scared when I started a new school. Do you know what made it not scary?”

Chaeryeong looked up at him with wide eyes, shaking her head. Woojin knelt down beside Chan.

“A boy I had never seen before came up to me and made sure I was okay, and we became best friends. If you have your friends with you, you’ll always be okay.” Woojin reached out and stroked her cheek as he spoke, glancing at his boyfriend, unable to hide his smile. Chan grabbed his other hand, holding it tightly. “You girls can make sure she’s okay, can’t you?”

Yeji and Yuna nodded enthusiastically.

“Of course,” Yuna replied, determination evident on her little face. She took Chaeryeong’s left hand while Yeji took her right. “Lia was over there. We can go and find her too.”

“You’re gonna be okay. I love you. I’ll see you as soon as school is over.” Chan said his final goodbyes as Yeji and Yuna dragged his sister off to find the rest of their friends. Chaeryeong did her best to wave back at all of them.

“God, they’re so cute,” Jisung muttered, watching them, slightly envious that Chan, Seungmin, Jeongin and Hyunjin all had such adorable younger siblings.

“She doesn’t really talk.” Chan’s eyes stayed on her while he spoke. “She never has. I feel like she was always meant to talk more, but she barely says anything at all. She’s such a sweetheart and I feel like I really fucked up because she deserves to be so much happier. She gets so anxious. It might be genetic, I don’t know. I used to be the same way. I can’t stop it though. I didn’t have anyone to make sure I was okay and I don’t want her to be the same, you know?”

“You can’t control how other people feel,” Woojin reminded him, taking a hold of his hand. “You’re doing everything you can.”

“Plus you’re not her parent either. You shouldn’t feel so bad about it because it’s not your responsibility,” Jisung added. “But I don’t think she’d be as upset if she didn’t love you a lot so you must be doing something right.”

Woojin smiled gratefully at him after he’d said that, and Chan just sighed, trying to shake off his emotions. 

“We should probably go. There’s not a lot of time left,” Chan said finally, waving over at his sister one last time. She seemed to be doing better already since she’d stopped crying, which wasn’t a surprise. Little kids are incredibly resilient. If only big kids, ones the same age as Chan or Jisung, could be the same.

Chan didn’t deserve to feel guilty about his sister. Jisung was quite right. Chan isn’t her dad. It shouldn’t be his responsibility to care so much, but he has to. It’s partly because it’s in his nature, but it’s mostly because someone needed to care. 

Perhaps this all seems intentionally vague and confusing but you’ll learn more about Chan and who he really is as Jisung does, so just wait a while. It’ll be more clear eventually.

It didn’t matter the number of days Chan had forced himself to not let anyone see him cry even though he was terrified about having to go to school alone when he had been her age. It didn’t matter that there had never been anyone to comfort him and lie to him and say it would be okay before he met Woojin. It didn’t matter how badly being neglected for the majority of his life had fucked him up despite the fact that he had two parents at home. All that mattered was that Chaeryeong never had to feel that way. She didn’t need to know that their mom and dad didn’t care. He needed for her to be able to see the silver lining in the bad things that happened to her because it was the only way he could see her being happy. Things can’t be just bad. If you only saw the bad parts of living in Sonder Pines, you wouldn’t survive. You’d simply vanish into the inky depths that was the town and drown.

Speaking of, Jisung better hurry up and get to school. There’s a very particular boy there who’s at risk of drowning and needs someone to pull him out. Minho never really knew how to swim. He’s been floating just beneath the surface of the water for a long time, barely able to breathe. If people aren’t quick, he might get lost forever. Only time will tell.

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooooooow I finally updated. I cried for like a month but I think I’m good and I love Woojin >:(
> 
> Tbh this chapter is important but also it was an excuse to rant about Chae and how much I love her. Stan Lee Chaeryeong, a whole angel. Stan ITZY.
> 
> Next chapter things will finally start happening, I promise. I’ll probably update pretty soon as well. This was a pretty short chapter but I felt like I needed to post something.
> 
> Apologies for any typos. <3


	8. are you tired of me yet?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is “This Is Home” by Cavetown.
> 
> Another song for Minho.

  
  


The school was much bigger than he’d expected it to be for such a small town. The somewhat rundown building towered over him and glared down at him as he stood at the front gate. Jisung felt like a million pairs of eyes were watching him from the windows, although he was probably imagining it, right? 

Woojin put an arm around his shoulders.

“It’s not as bad as it seems. You’ll be fine.” Jisung looked up at him in surprise. It seemed as if the oldest boy was finally warming up to him. “Anyone bothers you, just find me or Chan, alright?”

“Yeah… thank you…” Jisung felt a bit numb. Not a lot, just a bit. You know when you become so nervous you actually somehow stop feeling nervous and just feel nothing instead? Yeah, that feeling. He couldn’t quite focus on anything being said to him. 

“Come on.” Chan grabbed his hand, pulling him reluctantly. 

There were a number of students outside the building. At his old school, the parking lot had been huge and there would often be so many students outside that you’d be able to walk past them all without drawing too much attention to yourself. Here, it was probably a fourth of the size and every single person Jisung walked by stopped to stare at him. It was really really daunting. 

“Hey guys!” A few boys Jisung had met a while ago waved over at them from where they were standing next to a parked car. They were all Chan’s friends. It was nice to see someone who Jisung recognised, even if they weren’t close.

“Hey, what’s up?” Chan called back, still holding Jisung’s hand as the three of them walked over. “Sungie, you remember Jaebeom and Jinyoung, right?”

“Yeah, hey guys.” Jisung suddenly became shy, unsure of what else to say. 

“Hey, Hyunjin’s already inside if you’re looking for him,” Jinyoung told him. 

“You two are gonna tryout for the team again, right?” Jaebeom looked between Woojin and Chan.

“Of course dude,” Chan grinned. “Can’t lose our streak.”

“What about you, Jisung? Ever played football?” Jinyoung asked, draping an arm around Jaebeom’s shoulders. 

“I’ve never really thought about it,” he admitted. He’d never been a particularly athletic person. He worked out quite a bit but it just wasn’t something he’d ever considered doing. Plus, he wasn’t sure he had the build for football. The players were always so strong and he had spaghetti limbs. Probably good for sprinting but not getting tackled. 

“Well maybe you should,” Jaebeom replied with a shrug and a smile. “We’re just waiting for Bammie and Youngjae but you guys are welcome to wait with us.”

“We have to make sure Jisung knows where he’s going but thanks, you guys. See you in class?” Chan waved to them both as they left. 

“See you, dude,” Jinyoung called back, Jaebeom waving softly from beside him.

  
  
  
  
  


“So, I think Seungmin is gonna show you around- ah, there he is.” The three of them had entered the front of the building, revealing the entrance way which led into a large main hall which was filled with students. Chan pointed over to Seungmin, who was standing over by a notice board beside Hyunjin and Jeongin when he noticed them. He waved over at them, smiling cheerfully.

“Hey guys!” Jeongin called, flashing them his signature sunshine smile.

“Ready for your first day?” Seungmin asked, enthusiasm practically oozing our of him. He looked like an excited puppy.

“Minnie is one of those gross people that actually enjoys high school,” Hyunjin teased, standing behind Seungmin and wrapping his arms around him and leaning his head on his shoulder. 

“It's not _that_ ,” Seungmin retorted, scowling, his cheeks turning bright pink, making no effort to shove Hyunjin away. “I just think while we’re here, we might as well make the most of it, you know?”

“Disgusting,” Hyunjin whispered into his ear, making Seungmin blush harder.

“Alright, imma head out,” Jeongin announced, looking like he wanted to either die or throw up, trying to walk away but Hyunjin grabbed the handle on the back of his backpack and dragged him back, much to Jeongin’s dismay. “why won’t you let me die?”

“You don’t die until I allow it,” Hyunjin replied.

“There will be no dying today, do you hear me?” Chan asked, pulling Jeongin into a hug. “How are you?”

“Eternally suffering,” Jeongin responded with a wide smile. “So not bad.”

“You deeply concern me,” Chan told him, ruffling his hair.

“Any of you seen Min?” Woojin asked the group. The mood seemed to change and they all seemed to become quite somber.

“We haven’t seen him,” Hyunjin said.

“I saw him earlier but he wanted to be left alone,” Seungmin added, pressing his lips together with a grim expression. 

“Is he alright?” Jisung asked them all, feeling very confused. They all seemed to know something he didn’t.

“He’s… it’s a long story,” Seungmin began.

“One which you’ll either find out by yourself or which he’ll tell you,” Chan added, giving everyone a stern look, as if warning them not to say anything.

“Hey, I’ll show you around now, okay?” Seungmin suggest cheerfully, grabbing Jisung’s hand and pulling him away before he could do anything else, obviously an attempt at changing the subject. “See you guys later!”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“And down the hall there is the library and the rest of this space is where the social sciences classrooms are. I think that’s just about everything.”

The school was much bigger than Jisung had anticipated and it had taken the entirety of first period to walk around the entire building.

One end of the school had been particularly run down and, as expected, it was the part that housed the artistic subjects. Music, art and drama, that sort of thing. Jisung hadn’t really liked that part. It was kinda spooky. Everyone was dead silent and every time they’d walked into a room, the people inside would stop and stare at him and it all seemed rather dusty and empty. The lights in the hallways would flicker and it was a little like being in a horror movie.

The rest of the school hadn’t been as bad. Like most schools in America, most of the funding seemed to go the sports facilities. Jisung had little to no interest in sports but the football field was probably the only part of the school that appeared to have evolved past the 1980s.

“Do you have any questions about anything?” Seungmin asked, stopping in a quieter . Just as he did, the bell rang to signal the end of first period. “Don’t worry, I’m in your next class so I’ll take you to it.”

They both moved over to the side to allow the steady stream of students to pass them so they could attend their next class.

The doors to multiple classrooms swung open and the silence was shattered by the buzzing of conversation from the students that emerged from each room. Seungmin took Jisung’s arm, pulling him over to the side to let everyone past.

“So, what did you say you did outside of classes and stuff?” Jisung had to raise his voice to be heard over the noise.

“Well I’m part of the photography club. Also I help out with music sometimes and I’ve been on the student council every year,” Seungmin replies, seeming genuinely excited about it all. “I know it sounds boring, but it’s good for college applications and also it can get pretty quiet around here so it’s a decent distraction. I’m the Vice President not and I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.”

The noise and crowding had died down substantially so the two boys moved away from the side of the hallway to continue talking, the remaining people walking around them, occasionally brushing against them.

“That’s so much. I could never do that,” Jisung admitted. “I’ll probably barely make it through classes.”

“It won’t be as hard as you think. Honestly, any problems you have, just let me know and I’ll-“ Seungmin’s sentence was cut short when one of the people from a group that had been walking towards them intentionally shoved into his shoulder, nearly knocking him off balance. Jisung saw the enthusiasm die in his eyes the second it happened and he just let out a heavy sigh, before closing his eyes and trying to compose himself. “Let me know and I’ll try and fix it.”

The laughter of the group, which was comprised entirely of girls, echoed up the hallways as Seungmin smiled forcefully at him, trying in vain to pretend that nothing had happened. Jisung stared after them.

“What the hell is their problem?” He asked, staring after them.

“It’s fine. It’s nothing,” Seungmin insisted, still forcing himself to smile. 

Jisung narrowed his eyes at Seungmin, the younger boy’s own words from a few months before about people at school bothering him echoing in his mind. “ _Lies.”_

_“_ Huh?” Before Seungmin could respond Jisung had thrown his arms around him and refused to let him go.

“You can always talk to me too,” Jisung promised. “I’m not a student council president or something but you deserve to have people who are there for you so I volunteer as tribute.”

Seungmin relaxed into the hug, allowing Jisung to hold him. It felt really good honestly. “I’m not even really student vp yet. We haven’t started doing anything.”

He closed his eyes, resting his head against Jisung’s shoulder.

“Doesn’t matter. You’re still amazing,” Jisung told him, releasing him. “You’d have my vote, if I could vote for you.”

“Thanks, Sungie. You’re a really good person.” They both smiled sweetly at one another for a few moments, Jisung’s arms still resting on Seungmin’s waist.

“Don’t mention it, and I try my best. You guys have already done so much for me. It’s the least I can do.” He let go of Seungmin’s waist, choosing instead to throw his arm around his shoulders. “Now kindly tell me where the fuck I’m going because I’m really not that smart also I don’t remember where anything is.”

“Oh shit, we’re super late for English,” Seungmin gasped, checking the time on his phone. “That’ll be fun. Just a warning: the teacher might be one of the worst people you will ever meet in your life. You’re about to be really mad but I promise you we’ve already tried everything to stop it.”

Jisung looked at him in confusion. “Well that’s not weird at all.”

  
  
  
  


Seungmin and Jisung stood outside the classroom, waiting to go in.

“Ready?” Seungmin asked, his hand gripping the door handle. Jisung made a sort of weird anxious groaning noise instead and Seungmin opened the door.

The feeling of walking into a room filled with people who don’t know who you are and having all their attention on you at once isn’t one that ever really stops being awful, no matter how many times you experience it.

“Come in please.” The teacher said in a way that was both demanding and bored at the same time.

The desks were old fashioned and separated into rows of two people per desk, and there were only a few free seats in the whole class; one beside Hyunjin (but it seemed like Seungmin was already walking over to sit there), two beside two random kids Jisung had never met before, and one beside Minho. His choice here was pretty clear.

“Hey, mind if I sit here?” Minho didn’t look up at him immediately as he approached, appearing slightly startled. He nodded silently, turning back to face his desk. Jisung slightly confused, looked around at the others, including Seungmin, Hyunjin, Felix and Changbin, who were dotted sporadically around the classroom, all of them watching him and giving him a sort of warning glare, like they were trying to tell him something a

“Take a seat please,” the teacher at the front of the class demanded, already appearing impatient with him. 

“Uh, sorry,” he said, quickly throwing his bag under the desk and sitting down.

“Anyway, as I was saying, there is a number of techniques Shakespeare uses in his work that you’ll have to identify. A lot of them are extraordinarily basic and are things you will have already gone over last year and you should have looked over the material you were given over the summer so this should be really simple.. For example, in Hamlet, when Claudius says _”His beard was as white as snow”_ when referring to Hamlet’s father, this is an example of…”

The teacher looked around expectantly for someone to answer. Everyone seemed rather reluctant but Felix’s hand slowly slunk up.

“Yes, Felix.”

“Uh… is it a simile?” Felix asked, seeming very unsure.

“Correct.” The teacher didn’t seem particularly impressed and just continued talking. Jisung wished he knew what his name was. “Let’s try another one. “ _Not happy, yet much happier.”_ What is this?”

The teacher (Jisung should probably figure out his name) looked around at the class with a gaze like he was trying to burn a hole through them. He seemed more targeted and alert with how he looked at them this time, his eyes finally landing on what Jisung believed to be him, yet he was mistaken.

“What about you, Minho?”

Jisung swore in that moment he felt the atmosphere in the room physically change. It suddenly became so tense you could probably actually cut the tension with a knife.

He looked over at Minho and saw that the older boy was actually physically shaking with anxiety, not even bothering to look up. He just kept staring directly at his hands, inhaling and exhaling heavily to try and control his breathing. Jisung didn’t know what the hell was going on.

“Come on, Minho. One day you’ll actually say something right. Anything?”

The way in which the teacher was speaking to Minho didn’t seem real and it was as if he was actually deliberately taunting him. That couldn’t be the case though, could it?

Jisung looked around in horror, and was met with a solemn look from Felix and Seungmin basically holding Hyunjin back. He’d never actually seen Hyunjin angry before but he looked furious.

“Nothing? Very disappointing, but not surprising in the least,” the teacher remarked. “Paradox. That’s the word you’re looking for.”

Minho stared directly at his lap, head hung so as to avoid any and all eye contact with anyone else. Jisung was completely dumbfounded.

“He’s not stupid so stop acting like he is,” Hyunjin growled from the other side of the classroom. 

“The first day of the new semester and you’re already acting up, Mr Hwang,” 

“I’m not acting up you literally won’t let Minho answer.”

The teacher rolled his eye exasperatedly. “Detention again.”

“Fine, go for it. Doesn’t change anything.” Hyunjin sat back in his chair, folding his arms and glaring. Seungmin kept whispering to him, presumably telling him to stop, but he wouldn’t listen.

“Let’s try this again, Minho. Maybe you’ll get _this_ one.” Had he not been frozen to his seat by how completely bizarre everything going on around him was, Jisung might’ve punched this guy in the face. “ _“To be or not to be. That is the question.”_ This is probably one of the most well known quotes from anything ever. It should be easy. What’s the answer?”

After a sudden idea, Jisung grabbed his pen, attempting to be inconspicuous, scribbling the answer down and circling it before pushing it over for Minho to glance at.

Minho blinked at it for a few seconds, shooting Jisung a scared glance. “It’s… uh… is it antithesis?”

“That’s…. the right answer.” The disappointment in the teacher’s voice was evident, and that made Jisung feel a little smug.

Minho couldn’t quite meet Jisung’s eyes but Jisung could tell how grateful he was. Jisung grabbed his hand under the desk to squeeze it out of reassurance, but he found once he had a hold of it, he just couldn’t let go and Minho seemed reluctant to let go too. 

They sat like that for the rest of the class, trying to avoid being asked anything else, Jisung absentmindedly stroking the back of Minho’s hand with his thumb. 

Finally the bell rang, signalling the end of the lesson. As soon as they left the classroom, Minho took one look at the corridor full of people, further anxiety washing over him. He wasn’t ready to face the strange looks he was going to get from people. He knew his eyes were red and he was so paranoid because he felt like somehow they all already knew what had happened, even though that was impossible.

Jisung took one look at him and grabbed his hand, lacing their fingers together once again.

“Walk behind me,” he whispered to him, beginning to pull Minho along through the crowd. Minho kept his head low, not making eye contact with anyone.

Jisung knew how Minho felt. He was also an extraordinarily anxious person, but he expects Minho’s anxiety was just a product of his environment. He evidently got treated like shit both at home and at school and that was enough to shatter anyone’s spirit.

The rest of the boys hurried behind him, trying to keep up despite how busy the hallway was.

“In here.” Felix pushed open a door off to the side of the main hall where everyone was gathering which opened out onto a much smaller hall. More like a conference room actually.

They all filed in and the door closed behind them. 

Minho pulled his hand out of Jisung’s hold, turning away from them, tears gathering on his eyelashes. He hugged his arms close to his chest as the room fell into dead silence. It was hard to know what to say.

“Min-“ Seungmin began to speak before Minho cut him off.

“It’s fine,” he insisted. “Let’s just please not talk about it.”

“Does that really happen all the time?” Jisung looked around at them all.

“Basically every single day,” Hyunjin replied, voice still shaking with anger.

“We’ve tried to stop it,” Changbin added. “Like so many times. None of the teachers here care.”

“Guys, it doesn’t matter. Seriously don’t worry about it.” Minho’s voice broke halfway through his sentence and tears fell from his eyes, unable to cling to his eyelashes any longer. 

“This doesn’t seem like something that doesn’t matter to you.” Jisung wanted to hug him, make him feel better in some way. He had no idea how to though. 

Minho looked at him for a few seconds through tear clouded eyes, his emotions unclear, opening his mouth to reply when suddenly the door opened and Chan and Woojin came in.

They were over by his side in a matter of seconds like concerned parents. And, much like they were concerned parents, Minho tried to shove them off, insisting he was fine when he quite clearly wasn’t. 

Chan cupped Minho’s cheek in his hand, wiping his tears, and Minho didn’t try to escape or jerk away. Woojin had an arm wrapped around Minho’s shoulders as Chan did this. 

Just from these small actions, it seemed as if the two older boys may actually be the closest thing to proper parents Minho had.

“Same as always?” Woojin asked, looking around at all of them as Minho let Chan pull him into a hug. 

“Yep,” Hyunjin muttered bitterly.

“Why does this happen a lot?” Jisung asked them all, horrified by the concept.

“There’s nothing anyone can do,” Chan told him, stroking his fingers through Minho’s. “I know that probably sounds like a load of shit but trust me, we’ve done everything we possibly can.”

“It’s fine. I’m just being stupid,” Minho insisted, wiping his eyes and pulling away from Chan a bit, but not so far that he stopped holding him. “Anyway, Jisung really helped me out today. Like he sort of saved me.”

Everyone turned to look at Jisung, who turned bright red in response, not liking all the attention being on him.

“It’s really nothing,” he insisted, laughing nervously. “I just did what I hoped someone would do for me if I were like that.”

“Well, look, whatever you did, thank you,” Chan said to him sincerely. It was impossible for Chan to not be sincere but in that moment he was the most sincere he had ever been.

The others gathered around Minho now that he seemed like he was feeling a little better, but Jisung didn’t join them. He just stayed off to the side, split between watching and feeling too awkward to watch

“Hey Jisung.” A voice he hadn’t expected called him over. Woojin had stepped away from the others, standing ten feet or so away, waving him over with a soft smile on his face. 

“I wanted to thank you for looking after Minho,” Woojin said. “And to apologise.”

“For what?” Jisung stared at him at him in complete surprise.

“I haven’t been fair with you. Minho has been hurt by a lot of people close to him in the past and I wanted to make sure you weren’t just using him.”

“Did I seem like I was?” Jisung was a little hurt by the notion but Woojin quickly smiled and shook his head. 

“No, and I know that for definite now,” he responded, putting a hand on his shoulder.

It was an important moment. It should have mattered way more than it did. Jisung has spend months being scared of Woojin and here he was finally getting his approval. He would have paid attention, but his gaze had been caught by something behind Woojin. 

Across the hall, behind the doors that led into the next hallway, in those tiny glass windows that those kinds of doors have, there was a person. Jisung had never seen them before but they were staring _right at him_. Sometimes you can mistakenly believe that someone is looking at you when in reality they are actually looking at someone else, but the hall was empty except for them and the person was staring him dead in the eyes. 

“Jisung?” Woojin waved a hand in front of his face, but Jisung wasn’t daydreaming. 

“Who is that?” Jisung moved his head in the direction of the door. The person was still there. Still staring. They were beginning to smile too and it was getting to be quite uncomfortable. 

Woojin turned around immediately, looking in the same direction. “Who?”

“Behind the door.” Jisung couldn’t help the way he subconsciously hid behind Woojin slightly.

“What do you mean?” Woojin seriously looked confused. 

“If this is some kinda joke-“ Jisung began but he looked at Woojin’s face and could tell the older boy genuinely had no clue what he was talking about.

Woojin walked over to the door and pushed it open, peering behind it, before pushing it right open and beckoning Jisung over.

The hallway behind the door was empty.

“Huh…” Jisung began to doubt himself.

There was no way he’d made that up. There was also no way someone could have run down the hallway and hidden themselves. There was nowhere to hide. 

“Probably just someone trying to freak you out,” Woojin suggested, although the look on his face wasn’t convincing at all. As he looked up and down the corridor, all Jisung could think was that Woojin looked like he knew something _he_ didn’t. He was getting a little sick of feeling like that.

Woojin put a protective hand on his shoulder and guided him back into the hall and Jisung tried not to pursue the thoughts any further.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“Thank you for what you did today,” Minho said, avoiding Jisung’s gaze, as the younger boy leaned against the wall outside his house after the school day had ended and they walked back together. “I’m not stupid, like I understand it, but whenever he asks me something I go completely blank.”

“I didn’t think you were stupid even for a second.” Jisung told him. “I’m going to hug you now.”

“No please,” Minho whined trying to fight off the incoming affection, but Jisung was persistent in trapping him in his arms. “Stop it burns.”

“Don’t fight this,” Jisung muttered, closing his eyes tightly. 

Minho continued to whine, but truthfully he loved everything single second of this. 

“If you ever need help with anything, let me know,” Jisung said. “I’ll fight any teacher I have to for you.”

Minho couldn’t help but giggle softly. “You’d probably snap in half if you tried fighting anyone.”

“Maybe I would but I’d die protecting your honour and that’s all the matters,” Jisung replied with a wink, leaning back against the wall.

There was a few seconds where Minho just stared at him, seemingly debating with himself about his next action, while Jisung stared back.

Then Minho, a little hesitantly, leaned in and pressed his lips to Jisung’s cheek softly and when he pulled away, Jisung could see just how grateful the older boy really was. Minho’s cheeks were so pink and his eyes were slightly damp.

Minho had a million things he wanted to say in that moment. He wanted to spill his guts to Jisung about how just holding his hand had saved him from breaking down even more. That his friends had defended him for years, but Jisung meant something kinda different to him, even though he didn’t completely understand what yet, so having him there made him feel like he wasn’t suffocating anymore. That having Jisung in his life didn’t magically cure all his problems, but made him feel like he could maybe actually try and beat them for once. But he didn’t say any of those things. He was too scared to and he didn’t want to risk oversharing because he might accidentally push Jisung away which was something he couldn’t afford to do.

“Talk to you later?” He settled with instead, watching the soft smile that appeared on Jisung’s face. 

“Definitely.”

“Oh and hey,” Minho paused before he left, looking like he was debating with himself. “Wanna come to homecoming with me?”

Jisung felt like he might explode then and there with just how much he wanted that, but he swallowed all of that down, trying to seem cool on the surface. Minho probably just meant as friends anyway since neither of them had dates. “Yeah, I’d love to.”

Minho’s face lit up with the brightest smile Jisung had ever seen. “Cool, so I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow then?” 

He sounded a bit flustered now and all Jisung could think about was how painfully cute flustered Minho was.

“Definitely,” he promised, smiling at him fondly.

They said their final goodbyes and Jisung watched him as he left, trying to contain his excitement. He’d only been here for a few months and he now had quite possibly the most adorable homecoming date he’d ever seen. Okay not officially a _date_ , but close enough, right?

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So when I said I was okay with everything that happened, I was definitely lying. What turned into a tiny break from SKZ to process everything in October devolved into real life taking over and taking up all of my time. 
> 
> I was never ever going to abandon this fic bc it’s literally a story I’ve been working on for like three years now, even pre-discovering SKZ, but I sort of got trapped in a cycle of hating this chapter in particular so much that when I actually had time to edit it, I could barely look at it, but now everyone has far too much time and absolutely nothing to do with any of it, so I’ll be able to work on this far more now.
> 
> Anyway, I’m really sorry for leaving this so long. Turns out I rely on Woojin a lot more than I previously thought and him being gone took way longer to get over. However, fics are the place where he and SKZ can always exist together and I don’t plan on changing that anytime soon. If I can write Day6 and SKZ together, even tho they don’t interact much,  
> I can keep Woojin in forever.
> 
> Things are starting to get a little spooky, and it’s homecoming soon. It’s only going to get worse from here on out.
> 
> Side note: I’m not American. I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m pretty sure Homecoming is at the start of the year tho. Y’all have a lot of dances over there.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is my baby so please be nice to her :((( the chapters will probably normally be longer than this but I wanted to post something 
> 
> Next chapter:
> 
> Jisung follows Chan and meets all his friends, but one boy in particular sticks out to him. Like what business does this Lee Minho guy have being that pretty?


End file.
